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The final chapter in the long and sordid saga of pioneer Internet sportsbook World Sports Exchange (WSEX) will be written Monday in New York City when Haden Ware, one of the co-founders of the Antigua-based scam company, is to be sentenced in court for his role in its operation.
Ware and 20 others, including WSEX's other two co-founders, Jay Cohen and Steve Schillinger, were charged in 1998 by the U.S. Justice Department with illegally taking wagers over the Internet, a felony.
After 18 years on the run as a fugitive from justice, Ware, 40, finally turned himself in to authorities in the U.S. last January and now learns his fate.
Most of the other 20 who were charged in '98 immediately turned themselves in and plead guilty to the charge; they got fines or house arrest but none got prison time.
A couple had the charges dismissed.
One, Cohen, elected to fight the charges in court and was convicted in a jury trial; he was sentenced to 21 months in Federal prison and ended up serving 18 months before finishing the sentence at a halfway house.
The rest, including Schillinger, who committed suicide in 2013, remained fugitives.
WSEX went out of business right before Schillinger's death, stiffing all of its customers out of their winnings--a website that tracked the sportsbook's operations said several million dollars were stolen by WSEX's bosses.
So what should Ware expect to hear from sentencing Judge James C. Francis IV when he shows up in Manhattan Federal Court on Monday?
Gambling 911 over the weekend spoke to Buffalo State University law professor Joseph M. Kelly, one the USA's foremost experts on gambling law, to get his opinion on the Ware case and what he thinks Ware's sentence will be.
"I hope he doesn't get any jail time," Kelly told Gambling 911. "I don't think he will. I think he'll just get a fine."
But, if Ware does get time, Kelly said, "It will be three to six months, not the 21 months Jay Cohen was sentenced to."
Kelly also noted: "Ware, like the others, was charged with a felony, but when he gave himself up in January, he only pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge. That's why he'll get less time than Cohen, if he does get time. But I really don't think he is going to."
Kelly is intimately familiar with WSEX and it's co-founders.
The 76-year-old prof, who still teaches a course in business law at the university, aided in Cohen's defense in Cohen's trial 17 years ago by submitting a friend of the court brief on behalf of the Antiguan government and in support of Cohen, when the guilty verdict was unsuccessfully appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
As for Ware, Kelly said someone who books Internet wagers has no business in prison alongside murderers and rapists, especially with prisons as overcrowded as they are.
"Here's the thing," Kelly told Gambling 911. "You're a prosecutor. Do you really want to send somebody to prison when the emphasis is we've got too many people in prison right now? Even for three months or six months.
"Yes, Cohen got 21 months, but Cohen wanted his day in court," Kelly continued. "Had Jay Cohen come back and tried to get the whole thing dismissed on procedural stuff, and then pled guilty, he never would've gone to prison. That's my opinion. Nobody else did. If you go through a trial and lose, you go to prison. If you come back and try to get the thing set aside on procedural grounds and fail, you don't.
"Argue on technicalities. You can't get a conviction as a matter of law. Or the Wire Act as a matter of law doesn't apply overseas. What we call pre-trial motions. But Cohen didn't want to do that."
By Tom Somach
Gambling 911 Staff Writer
