Written by :
Published on :
50 US attorney generals sent a joint letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi asking for the U.S. Department of Justice to shut down illegal gaming outlets, seize related assets and block unlawful transactions.
Their efforts center on having the U.S. Justice Department block access to illegal websites and associated payment systems.
Gamblng industry analyst Joe Brennan, Jr, who was instrumental in efforts to have the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), questioned how this is possible.
He tweeted immediately following news of the letter:
"Were the A-Gs advised that offshore sportsbooks over the last 20 years devised a system where they don’t use US banks, processors or TLDs, so there’s not much the DOJ can do?"
Over the last ten years, offshore gambling sites rely more heavily on cryptocurrency processing. An entire cottage industry of "Bitcoin" and other crypto gambling sites have emerged as a result of this trend.
Offshore sportsbooks have operated since the 1990s with a number of today's companies in existence now for over 20 years.
The Attorney Generals also requested that the DOJ seize assets—including servers, domains, and financial proceeds—used in connection with unlawful gaming operations. Most of these, however, are based offshore in jurisdictions where the activity is legal.
The letter was co-sponsored by Attorneys General William Tong (Connecticut), Andrea Joy Campbell (Massachusetts), Mike Hilgers (Nebraska), and Derek Brown (Utah).
Interestingly, neither Nebraska nor Utah offer Internet sports betting. Nebraska does regulate retail sports betting. Utah does not regulate any forms of gambling.
Attorneys general of the following states and territories joined the bipartisan coalition: Alabama, Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, U.S. Virgin Islands, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming.
In recent months, a handful of state regulators have mostly focused their attention on prediction markets and sweepstakes casinos, the latter of which advertise heavily throughout the U.S. Sweepstakes casinos, while claiming to be "free-to-play", tend to rely more on the U.S. banking system through their extended model that involves real money purchases.
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
