Gambling News by Gambling Headquarters

When James Giordano and 24 others were indicted by the Queens District Attorneys office last month, many in the online gambling world immediately feared the worst. The first "take down" of a "significant" internet gambling business since President Bush signed a bill into law that would attempt to prevent some forms of gaming transactions. The Queens DA himself through spokesperson, Kevin Ryan, said it himself: "The arrests by prosecutors and police in New York City represent the first time that Internet gambling charges have been brought since President Bush signed into law last month the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act." This case is similar in nature to that which went down a few weeks ago in Montreal where a number of individuals with suspected "Mob ties" were arrested. They too had a connection with a gambling enterprise that just happened to utilize an online website. Neither the Queens or Montreal cases actually signal an escalation in online gambling industry prosecutions but rather demonstrate an increasing focus on gambling enterprises that operate at least partially from North American soil through use of agents (also known as "runners") and do so by offering a website to clients. The vast majority of online gambling industry companies operate exclusively off North American shores. The charges made public by the DA's office are felony violations of the Penal Law, and, nothing related to the recent law passed related to internet gambling. Authorities said they broke the case wide open last year when New York Police Department investigators secretly hacked into a laptop computer that James Giordano had left in a Long Island hotel while attending a wedding. Giordano, 52, was arrested Nov. 15 by FBI agents who scaled the walls of his fortress-like Florida compound. He was indicted along with 26 others, including three family members, on charges of running an online gambling scheme that rivaled casino sports betting. Prosecutors allege that since 2004, Giordano had run a $1 billion-a-year operation involving tens of thousands of bettors and 2,000 bookies. One of Giordano's attorneys says the numbers derived at by investigators is "mathematically incorrect".