Last night Calvin Ayre broke the news that the domain name Bodog.com had been seized by the federal government.
Today the Feds broke the news to Mr. Ayre that he has been indicted along with three others described by the Feds as the “owners or operators of the site, Calvin Ayre, James Philip, David Ferguson and Derrick Maloney.”
Ayre is accused of operating an illegal gambling business involving sports betting and conspiring to commit money laundering.
According to Forbes.com, “None of the men are in custody and they are believed to be in Canada.”
“According to the six-page indictment filed by Rosenstein, Ayre worked with Philip, Ferguson and Maloney to supervise an illegal gambling business from June 2005 to January 2012 in violation of Maryland law.”
“The indictment focuses on the movement of funds from accounts outside the U.S., in Switzerland, England, Malta, and Canada, and the hiring of media resellers and advertisers to promote Internet gambling.”
“Sports betting is illegal in Maryland, and federal law prohibits bookmakers from flouting that law simply because they are located outside the country,” Rosenstein said in a statement. “Many of the harms that underlie gambling prohibitions are exacerbated when the enterprises operate over the Internet without regulation.”
The funniest (and saddest) thing was the narratives and abysmal ‘interpretations’ of the law people in the online gaming/poker world made during the good times… about how there was nothing to worry about, etc.
Most regulatory offenses are defined by the people who toe the line, operate in the gray areas, who ultimately get prosecuted.
One thing everyone should keep in mind is that if your rationalization for what you’re doing is based on whatever hypothetical defense you would raise in court should you be prosecuted for doing it, then you had damn well better be prepared to be prosecuted because eventually, you will be.
It is funny, I think Calvin Ayre, grew up in the same area as Frank Schilling, and became a billionaire, simply amazing how these 2 from a small town have created so much. It all comes down to tax dollars, if he was paying a cut, nothing would be wrong with it according to the government.
Here is an article on the way he lives:
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=d46ca742-2446-4be3-9d9e-eaa7c8d7ebc6
Am I mis-informed or didn’t they lose the domain name sometime ago? Like a couple of years ago? I thought they rebranded with a new domain? No????
@ Ron
Lavish lifestyles are always a huge cue for ‘regulatory prosecution’, regardless of if you’re actually doing anything wrong. It’s the ‘hater’ part of human nature. Bureaucrats making $120,000 a year resent the man who makes $5,000,000 a year. Those are the people with the keys to the regulatory gate and they make their bones going after the ‘flagrant’, be they IRS agents, AUSAs, etc. It’s always been that way. Human nature will never change, regardless of what laws are written.
If you live large , above the radar and in the limelight, you’re going to get fucked with.
Period.
The Koch Brothers, the Albrecht brothers (RIP Theo)- they have the right idea.
they are all rigged anyways.
Yes, amazing, you can fill the roulette wheel on a online casino game, with every number except 0,00 and guess what hits, blackjack, never seen a dealer make so many 21’s showing a 6, on a player double down, how do you think he became a billionaire…
Mr. Ayre has issued a statement since the indictment was made public:
http://calvinayre.com/2012/02/28/legal/calvin-ayre-indicted-by-feds-calvin-ayre-releases-statement
The Gov’t been a a bully on gambling.
Time for a regime change…..all of ’em. Vote every incumbent out that does not support legalization of Internet gambling.
@asdf….the Koch brothers have the right idea??!! In regards to what? Being careless,greedy and completely unethical pricks. Just because someone makes a shitload of money should not grant them your admiration. How much they contribute not how much they take should be the benchmark. People are such money hungry morons.
Stunning! his blog (Calvin Ayre’s) is one of my daily reads. If there is a bright side to this, it is that the US government is making a clean sweep of unregulated gaming and outside (the US) gaming interests in anticipation of online regulation (legalization) in about a years time. We will see.
the feds are using state law. that’s 50 states’ worth of statutes these online gambling moguls have to worry about. crazy.
this is a dumb question but are the american indian tribes running online gambling websites? they have permission from the govt to run casinos, right? if they are not in the online gambling business, what is the reason?
@ StreetKid
I can only assume your IQ is low. You completely failed to follow along with a basic conversational flow and comprehend an equally basic implication. My point was, keeping private and as below the radar as possible. Only recently have the Koch Brothers been ‘outed’ for their activities. They had been influencing shit behind the scenes for years, with no one the wiser….
No surprise you resent money. That comes from the same place that causes the other girls to resent the hottest cheerleader.
This is all because they are getting ready to legalize internet gambling. Gotta knock out the competition first.