Pastor, 3 Men Charged in Online Gambling Scheme

Written by :

Jagajeet Chiba

Published on :

11 January, 2010

A one time Evangelist pastor and three other men were charged for running an elaborate $10 million online gambling scheme on Monday.

The arrests come 11 months after a raid of the Gold Coast offices of Alan Davenport for allegedly bilking investors out of $10 million on a "sports arbitrage" scheme. Davenport, once a pastor for the now defunct Reach Out for Christ Pentecostal church, ran the online gambling enterprise from his Australian home under the name World Trade Systems (WTS).

According to the Courier Mail, customers were offered "guaranteed" wins by spreading their bets on all possible outcomes with different bookmakers.

WTS investors allegedly were offered a low-risk and tax-free income and invested an average of $20,000 to $80,000 in the scheme.

WTS offered investors a "100 per cent money-back guarantee" and its website proclaimed it was "impossible to lose your money with WTS".

Alleged victims included a Gold Coast pensioner who said he had invested almost $50,000 in the scheme.

Detective Inspector Marc Hogan, of Surfers Paradise CIB, said that the $10 million has yet to be found and the investigation is ongoing.

"The State Crime Operations Fraud and Corporate Crime Group assisted in this investigation and will continue to provide further specialised support," he said.

Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com

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