Odds on Whether US Law Enforcement Takes Down Online Sportsbook for Super Bowl 2012
Gambling911.com has been covering all the hundreds of 2012 Super Bowl betting props that are currently out there. Each year there are always a few novel prop bets such as this year’s What Color Will Madonna’s Hair Be and we’re still waiting on those Gisele Bundchen bets.
So with the US Government’s aggressive action against online gambling websites over this past year, we couldn’t help but wonder what the odds might be for a Super Bowl surprise.
The reality is that law enforcement agencies throughout the past few decades have targeted the championship game to take down local bookmakers.
With online gambling on the verge of becoming legalized in the United States, law enforcement agencies are rumored to be wrapping up long drawn investigations, some of which were started as far back as 2005 (The Hellinger case in Eastern PA and the much more publicized US Attorney out of Maryland cases come to mind).
While the vast majority of online sportsbooks that have accepted US players over the years switched to either .AG (Antigua) or .EU domain extensions, it is widely assumed that the vast majority of their player base still accesses these websites by typing in the .com domain names.
Antigua won its case against the US Government in a World Trade Organization dispute. The Caribbean island nation is still home to bigwigs Intertops and Bodog while a few other online casinos continue to hold licenses there. Antigua’s reputation, however, has been marred over the past two years by World Sports Exchange’s inability to pay players. That company was once the shining example of how self-regulation could help an online gambling industry in its infancy prosper. But WSEX was simply unable to adapt to the explosive growth that followed.
The Antigua .AG domain extension has become less of an industry standard than the .EU extension.
There is an excellent (but long) article here on what makes going after a .EU domain extension a difficult task. Essentially the European Union has condemned recent efforts by the US Government to seize .com domains connected primarily to trademark infringement websites, though it was the online gamlbing sector (a la efforts by Kentucky's current governor) that got the ball rolling when it comes to domain seizure efforts.
The .co.uk extensions are a whole different story it seems. The United Kingdom has come under intense scrutiny it seems as the US Government for its practice of seizing domains. They appear to be focusing their attention on the online pharmaceuticals.
The UK-based registrar Nominet cooperated with local law enforcement to suspend over 2,000 .uk websites on grounds of trademark infringemen this past Novembert, although it did so at the request of police and without a court order.
Interesting, that much of the chatter involving a possible website seizure by US authorities the day of the Super Bowl is originating out of Europe, specifically the United Kingdom.
We can’t say for sure whether any disruptions will occur on Super Bowl Sunday or not, though the odds are short at 2 to 1.
Our sources tell us the desire is there but the tools to do so are somewhat limited.
Do expect local law enforcement agencies to engage in the usual roundups of bookies. The odds of this happening are around 1 to 10.
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
