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The Anne Arundel County police department of Maryland has hit the jackpot, netting nearly a half-million dollars for its assistance with a federal agency that seized nearly a dozen online gambling websites last week, including Bookmaker.com, DoylesRoom.com and BetED.com.
Nine of the ten online gambling websites belonged to the Bookmaker Group, which had most of its businesses up and running within 24 hours of the seizure. The Bookmaker brand had switched to a .ag domain extension even before its main .com site was offline.
A second company charged in the sting operation, BetED.com, closed its doors following the announced charges. That company claims it cannot make good on payments since the US Attorney's Office ouf of Balfimore seized all of its funds. Customers are demanding to know where their funds are.
"Now we know," quipped one industry insider.
The Anne Arundel County police department received a check for $470,407.62, which is being called "the single largest asset distribution in county history". The check will be used to pay for undercover police cars and equipment.
The sting operation was called “Operation Texas Hold’em”. Federal authorities set up a phony payment processing company that entered into arrangements with the Bookmaker businesses and BetED.com. Most of the money seized reportedly came from BetED.com. Federal authorities handled some $33 million in online gambling transactions during the two-year investigation.
- Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
