Baltimore feds target Internet gambling
Escoot
Senior Member
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-internet-gambling-20110523,0,2199567.story?page=1
Two Internet gambling businesses and their international owners were indicted by a Maryland federal grand jury as part of a lengthy, undercover investigation, details of which were released Monday after 11 associated bank accounts were seized in five countries and 10 Web domain names were shut down...The agency set up a phony payment processing business in Atlantic City and spent two years infiltrating the world of illegal online betting.
Agents ultimately handled more than $33 million in transactions and uncovered a thriving criminal community in Maryland and beyond: "There are numerous individuals in Maryland who have authorized payments to these [foreign] businesses," claims one agent's sworn affidavit, filed with court records.
Phony payment processing company found here: http://paymentprocessingsolutions.com/index.html
Two Internet gambling businesses and their international owners were indicted by a Maryland federal grand jury as part of a lengthy, undercover investigation, details of which were released Monday after 11 associated bank accounts were seized in five countries and 10 Web domain names were shut down...The agency set up a phony payment processing business in Atlantic City and spent two years infiltrating the world of illegal online betting.
Agents ultimately handled more than $33 million in transactions and uncovered a thriving criminal community in Maryland and beyond: "There are numerous individuals in Maryland who have authorized payments to these [foreign] businesses," claims one agent's sworn affidavit, filed with court records.
Phony payment processing company found here: http://paymentprocessingsolutions.com/index.html
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As part of the case, 10 Internet sites were seized under a court order, including Bookmaker.com and Truepoker.com.
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Supposed to
sounds scary.....are they affiliated with Bookmaker?
It's illegal, of course they are linked with crime.
Classic! You never fail to make me laugh
As you may already know, Bookmaker has temporarily lost the rights to the Bookmaker.com domain. We are confident that in time, it will be returned to us, until then, we have launched a new, temporary site:www.bmaker.ag.
Despite having lost the domain, none of the business operations have otherwise been affected. Player account balances and information are safe and secure. Effective immediately, players can log on to www.bmaker.ag.and it's business as usual.
You likely won't notice any other changes at all and will experience all the same features and benefits as our original site; just on a new address.
We sincerely apologize if you were affected by our interruption. As always, if you have any questions or concerns please call our customer service department at 1-866-9Bookmaker.
Just curious, what do you think sets Bookmaker apart? Also, they (well, CRIS) own two of the other sites from that list (Betmaker and DSI).
I dont think anything sets them apart I just think they were unlucky enough to use the fake processor and thus got caught, This sting just like the poker crackdown came about because of the payment processors. A site like TheGreek who doesnt allow US customers to deposit by CC should have nothing to worry about because there is no way to track the flow of money from the USA to their site which is how they catch the sites.
Gotcha, fair enough.
In general, you'd expect the larger, more reputable, and financially stable sites (i.e. Bookmaker) to make an effort to stay in business and/or find a way to pay off all customers who are owed, but such scenarios are probably less likely with the smaller, lesser known outfits. As with anything there are no guarantees and everyone should manage balances and accounts accordingly.
ed, i got to thank you for being so honest on your opp. about this. i see on other sites, site owners lying about the whole situation to the posters just thinking about tha advertise bucks. make me sick to hear some of the excuses these people are using.
Another thought on this, if the money is important to you make the withdrawal request but if you want to gamble in the future I would not recommend withdrawing. I think we'll soon be back to the days of cashiers checks in fedex envelopes which isn't that difficult but certainly isn't as "instant" as what we have now in the US.
I read the same story, and while I've never personally used BetEd and don't know much about them, based on the story, if true I would tend to agree with you.
1) are they ever going to try to crack down on individuals like us who send money through the processors to the books?
2) there will always be moneygram/WU deposits... those are fairly instant and are my preference
1. They have shown no interest so far in cracking down on US citizens who are involved and even with the poker crackdown the feds worked with the sites to facilitate the payment of players. I know in regards to the law here in Washington in that they have specifically stated that they have no interest in going after the players.
2. This is what I have been saying from the start of this is that I would expect most of the sites who are smart to go specifically to WU/Moneygram for deposits and remove the other options as those are the ones that have the ability to get these sites caught.
1) Very unlikely, but certainly no guarantees. In other words, no lawyer is going to promise your safety.
2) Only effective for smaller deposits/withdrawals.