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$42 Billion from U.S.Regulated Online Gambling
October 29, 2009 (CAP Newswire) — Coming at a time when the debate over whether or not the legalize (and regulate, and tax) online gambling in the United States has reached a critical point, a non-for-profit, independent group has released a statement announcing that the government stands to make tens of billions of dollars in tax revenue from the enterprise.
The United States’ most influential financial publication, the Wall Street Journal, quoting from the Dow Jones newswire, has published a report stating that the measures in the U.S. Congress “decriminalizing many forms of Internet gambling would raise nearly $42 billion for the U.S. Treasury over the next decade”.
The analysis comes from the Joint Committee on Taxation, a group that stands independently from any online casino advocacy group. The report states that legalizing online gambling “would generate $41.8 billion over 10 years.”
If that doesn’t motivate skeptical U.S. lawmakers, it’s hard to imagine what would.
States Regulating Online Gambling and Shutting Out Foreign Operators?
As California and Florida (and Others) Move to Legalize Online Gaming within UIGEA Laws, Overseas Companies are Left Behind.
From the CAP News page:
October 28, 2009 (CAP Newswire) — Since it seems that the UIGEA is here to stay, at least for the short term, some states have begun plans for legalizing and regulating online gaming within their own borders, ignoring the larger national market.
One of the more confusing (and poorly understood) aspects of the UIGEA is that it doesn’t necessarily outlaw online gambling; it prevents inter-state online gambling. States are still theoretically free to set up their own online gaming networks within their own borders (with a certain amount of restrictions). California gave it a halting start last year and plans to try again in 2010. Florida is also considering doing so. And Illinois has just legalized online horse race betting. (Although some feel that UIGEA regulators may come down on that in the near future.)
There are many far-reaching results that would come from a trend of states legalizing online gaming within their own borders, adhering to the UIGEA framework. For starters, it would likely prevent a nationwide online gambling law, hampering the efforts of Barney Frank and other legislators targeting the UIGEA.
Perhaps more significantly for the online gaming industry, though, it would exclude foreign operators from doing business in the U.S.
That means that big brands like Full Tilt Poker and bwin would be legally locked out of one of the largest and most lucrative Internet gambling markets in the world. And the results from that would be the rise of other, smaller online gambling companies — possibly just a single operator per state, or maybe even a state-run agency.
Then again, those brands are extremely popular, and Internet ooker players in the U.S. who have found ways to continue playing on them — and there are many; 1.5 million in California alone, according to most estimates — would probably prefer to continue doing so, basically shutting off the new sites. And that could lead to bigger problems, and possibly more messy legal fights in the U.S. — the last thing the online casino industry needs.
And if new companies did appear in each state, to what extent would these new companies offer affiliate marketing programs? And how reliable and/or profitable would they be for affiliates? Would it even work to offer an affiliate program that’s only valid for one specific state? At this point, all this is anyone’s guess.
More Legal Headaches from U.S. Online Gambling World
More Arrests Emphasize the Fact that the UIGEA Cannot Simply Be Ignored.
From the CAP Newswire:
October 26, 2009 (CAP Newswire) – The online gambling industry is becoming more and more resigned to the fact that politicians friendly to our cause aren’t going to be able to do much in terms of overturning the United States’ anti-online gambling laws — at least, not anytime particularly soon.
Meanwhile, the fallout from the law, which hasn’t even been fully implemented yet (that happens on the first of December), is growing daily. In addition to the recent bank account seizures in Maryland, the state of Ohio recently shut down a business offering access to Internet gambling, and arrested the two proprietors. This case echoes recent actions in Kansas. (Read about it here.)
More alarmingly, last week, 30 people were indicted by the U.S government in New York, Florida, Nevada and Panama (!) for “being part of a multimillion-dollar offshore betting operation” specializing in sports betting, reports the Southtown Star.
As with some other recent prosecutions, this one was attributed not to UIGEA but to the Wire Act of almost 50 years ago. “Though online betting certainly did not exist at the time the act was passed, it’s the transfer of money through a ‘wire communications facility for the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce of bets or wagers’ that puts online betting within the scope of the law,” the article states.
Prosecutors are now regarding the two anti-online gambling laws as complementary to one another. In other words, if online gambling can’t be busted under the UIGEA, it’s going to be busted under the Wire Act. “Ian McCaleb, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was enacted in 2006 to address online gambling more specifically, though it was considered illegal under previous criminal statutes,” the article explains.
Hope that the government will not fully enforce the UIGEA is all but gone. The full implementation of the bill isn’t even in place yet, and officials are apparently stepping up their actions. Until politicians are able to treat this issue with the priority it demands, it looks like this pattern may continue.
It’s Business As Usual At BetOnLine.com Despite Arrests
BetOnLine.com reps insist that customers monies are safe and that they have nothing to do with any credit business even after thirty individuals connected with the Panama City-based online gambling shop were indicted this past week for unlawfully operating a sports betting enterprise that the Queens District Attorney’s Office claims took in more than $567 million over a 28-month period.
The 38-month investigation was known as “Operation Betting It All”. An arrest of the alleged “kingpin”, Joseph Fafone of Rochester, New York, culminated with the announced indictments. Many of those arrested have already been released on bail and are not deemed a “flight risk”. The Queens DA has attempted to connect Fafone with the Gambino crime family.
Fafone, who is a survivor of pancreatic cancer, was nabbed while trying to catch a flight from Rochester to Panama City, Panama with $23,000 in cash.
“BetOnline.com is absolutely NOT a credit shop,” a spokesperson for the company told Gambling911.com. “BetOnline.com is a post up book, no different from BetUs.com or any other. The credit shop was a credit shop… completely separate business, completely separate ballgame, which does not affect the BetOnline.com brand.
“As you can imagine, this is turning out to be a PR nightmare for us and our brand, but what happened in the US yesterday was not at all about BetOnline.com – it was about the credit businesses. It’s a shame the news outlets had to spin it the way they did to make it the juiciest possible story for them. For us here at BetOnline.com, it’s business as usual – customers are still getting paid, bets are still being made.”
One of those named in the indictment is just a clerk at BetOnLine who makes no more than $300 per month.
An executive from another indicted online gambling firm recently joined BetOnLine and was slated to take over their marketing functions.
A low level employee of another gambling group indicted by the Queens DA was given the choice of serving a 12 month sentence or to confiscate all his money. He had no priors. The individual opted for the 12 month sentence.
Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
Federal Online Gambling Inquiry Grabs Processor E-Mail
The seizure of bank accounts to grab payments intended for online gambling patrons by US authorities has moved to seizing e-mails of the payment processors involved, as cart-before-the-horse officials seek evidence of gambling wrongdoing.
The latest move by the federal investigation into online gambling bank accounts is the seizure of e-mails to and from Electracash, one of the payment-processing companies whose bank accounts were taken by authorities in July. According to reports by the Baltimore City Paper, new warrants have been issued for the e-mails, as officials look for damning statements concerning gambling.
The warrants were signed by US District Judge James Bredar on October 9th. The affidavit sworn by law enforcement officers to acquire the warrants is under seal, as were the original warrants allowing the seizure of bank accounts containing payment to US residents who won at online poker.
That seal was eventually lifted by a judge after a media company’s suit determined there were no compelling reasons to hide the information from the public.
The warrant was given on the testimony of a US Customs officer, Richard Gunn. Gunn had previously applied for warrants used against bank accounts of Forshay Enterprises, another payment processor.
The government’s case against online gambling continues to revolve around seizing cash and then daring its owners to come seek it. Electracash’s alleged owners, Edward Courdy and Michael Garone, have been charged with money laundering, but have never been called by any court to face charges.
Instead, the government took $14 million from Garone, and $10 million from Courdy, along with $40 million in online gambling processing bank accounts, and seems content to keep the money, knowing the owners won’t chance an appearance in US court.
Published on October 22, 2009 by MattMiller
BetOnline.com Principals Indicted Wednesday
Raymond W. Kelly and Patricia J. Haynes, Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), today announced the indictment of 30 individuals and one corporation on charges of unlawfully operating a sports betting enterprise that stretched from Queens County to Nevada and from Rochester to Florida. It is estimated that the ring took in more than $567 million over a 28-month period by accepting wagers on a wide variety of sporting events – ranging from professional football, basketball, hockey and baseball to college basketball, among others.
District Attorney Brown said, “The defendants are accused of operating an incredibly lucrative gambling operation – taking in more than $20 million a month, on average. Such unlawfully earned profits are often – and easily – diverted to more insidious criminal enterprises. In fact, the investigation uncovered evidence that the enterprise had links to both the Gambino and Genovese crime families.”
The District Attorney continued, “Illegal gambling is not a victimless crime. Those who participate in these criminal enterprises often use threats, intimidation and even physical force to collect debts and oftentimes charge usurious interest rates on outstanding debts. In addition to our NYPD and IRS partners, I want to thank our federal law enforcement colleagues and police authorities in other states for their cooperation and efforts in this investigation. So massive was the enterprise that only with their assistance could we bring these defendants to justice.” Commissioner Kelly said, “Gambling proceeds is the fuel that drives organized crime. The staggering amount of money in this case demonstrates just that. In this instance, however, the bookies ran out of luck.”
IRS Special Agent-in-Charge Haynes said, “Illegal gambling is a complex financial crime. Violators often use computers as tools to conduct financial transactions to launder money. Our agents use their unique financial and forensic computer skills to trace the flow of the money and unravel these financial transactions.”
One of the ring’s alleged bookmakers – Joseph J. Fafone – was arrested yesterday at the airport in Rochester New York, where he was waiting to board a flight to Panama. He was carrying nearly $24,000 in cash on his person. Of the other ring members, seventeen were arrested locally today and are awaiting arraignment in Queens Supreme Court. Nine other individuals were arrested in upstate New York, Florida, Nevada and Illinois. Three others – including two in Panama – are presently being sought and search warrants are being executed across the country to track down assets connected to the ring. Presently, more than $3 million in cash has been seized. The arrests stem from a 38-month investigation known as “Operation Betting It All.”
The defendants are charged with enterprise corruption – a violation of New York State’s Organized Crime Control Act – as well as money laundering, promoting gambling and conspiracy.
If convicted, the individual defendants each face up to 25 years in prison. The corporate defendant faces a fine of up to $10,000 or double the amount of the illegal gain.
In addition to the criminal charges, twenty of the defendants are being sued civilly and have been named as respondents in a $125 million civil forfeiture action filed in Queens Supreme Court by the District Attorney’s Special Proceedings Bureau which alleges that they engaged in a criminal enterprise that promoted illegal gambling activities and generated illegal wages.
District Attorney Brown said that, according to a 131-count indictment filed in Queens County Supreme Court the gambling ring promoted illegal sports betting in Queens County and elsewhere and that the top two defendants – alleged bookmakers Joseph J. Fafone and Eric Davis Harp – used various Internet websites, including betallsportshere.com, justwagers.com, betmsg.com, betonline.com, and betrr.com, as well as toll-free telephone numbers to accept wagers. The defendants also allegedly controlled a non-traditional “wire room” in the form of an off-shore Internet gambling service used by bettors and runners to actually place their wagers. It is alleged that the ring used the off-shore wire room – located in Panama – to maintain the gambling accounts of numerous runners and bettors through the Internet websites in an effort to evade law enforcement detection through traditional methods.
Law enforcement crackdowns on traditional mob-run wire rooms have led to the use by illegal gambling rings of off-shore gambling websites where action is available around the clock.
Bettors can click on an off-shore gambling website over the Internet and be assigned individual login codes and passwords. Their wagers and win-loss amounts are recorded in “sub-accounts” maintained in the accounts of “runners” and “agents.” These gambling websites typically store their information on computer servers located outside the United States – such as in Panama – and “bounce” their data through a series of server nodes in an effort to evade law enforcement.
In addition to Fafone and Harp – who allegedly were the bookmakers of the enterprise who controlled and oversaw the entire operation – the indictment charges that nine other defendants – Joseph Fafone, Sr., Thomas Farley, Gail Harris, Edward P. Kenny, Lester Klein, Louis P. Lippa, Amanda Mercer, Robert Rasmussen and David Valerio – worked as “money collectors” and “distributors” and were responsible for exchanging, distributing, delivering and transferring gambling proceeds between members of the organization, including to and from agents/runners. Some of the collectors were also allegedly involved in exchanging, distributing, delivering and transferring gambling proceeds through various financial institutions.
Four other defendants – Jerry Dicresce, Edward LaRocco, David Strickland and Robert Wehnert – are alleged to have been “master agents” with several subordinate agents/runners reporting directly to them.
The indictment additionally charges that thirteen of the defendants worked as “agents/runners” – Robert Aglialoro, Andrew Berg, John Bowling, Louis Cassero, Joseph Catalanotto, Philip Cesario, David Goldman, Jonathan Piansky, Joseph Pontarelli, Matthew Schmalacker, Louis Todisco, Michael Rizzi and Robert Stampf – and were responsible for soliciting new bettors to the organization, maintaining existing bettor relationships and meeting with bettors to collect gambling losses and payout winnings.
While bookmakers Fafone and Harp allegedly visited the Panama wire room on occasion, it is alleged that two other defendants in the ring – Andre Lepiz and Mike Sheridan- were in charge of the day-to-day running of the room and allegedly acted as intermediaries with others involved in the operation.
The corporation, JJF Consulting Services, Inc., is allegedly owned by Joseph J. Fafone and operated out of his personal residence. The corporation was allegedly a shell corporation that was used as a “money launder” to funnel and obscure the illegal gambling proceeds.
District Attorney Brown said that the investigation leading to today’s indictment began in September 2006 when detectives from the NYPD’s Organized Crime Investigation Division developed information about an illegal sports betting operation and began a joint investigation with the District Attorney’s Organized Crime and Rackets Bureau. The investigation included physical surveillance, intelligence information, use of an undercover officer and court-authorized electronic eavesdropping.
According to the indictment, between September 2006 and January 2009, the defendants conspired to make money illegally through the operation of an unlawful gambling enterprise that accepted bets on sporting events ranging from as little as $5 to as much as $20,000 on a single game.
According to the indictment, after a bettor placed a bet either through the website or through one of the organization’s toll-free telephone numbers, the bettor collected his winnings or paid any losses by interacting with an agent/runner either in person or through interstate commerce. The agent/runner, in turn, met with a money collector to turn over any gambling debts the agent/runner collected from his bettors and/or to receive any money from the money collectors that the agent/runner’s bettors won. The money collector/distributors, in turn, were responsible for the collection and distribution of illegal gambling proceeds between the bookmakers and the agents/master-agents.
The investigation was conducted by the NYPD Detective Joseph Chimienti of the Organized Crime Investigation Division of the Organized Crime Control Bureau, under the supervision of Lieutenant Jack Iacovou and Detective Matthew Murphy of the NYPD’s Asset Forfeiture Unit under the supervision of Sergeant Stephen Scalza.
Also assisting in the investigation were IRS Special Agent John D. Lopez and IRS Supervisory Special Agent Russ Richardson; State of Nevada Gaming Control Board Enforcement Division Special Agents James Taylor and Anthony Vincent and Agent Jesse Prieto; Sean O’Malley, Deputy Chief Investigator, Enforcement Division, Federal Reserve Bank of New York; and Assistant United States Attorney Yasmin Best of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois and Assistant United States Attorney Tanya Y. Hill of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
Assistant District Attorney Christine M. Maloney, of the District Attorney’s Organized Crime and Rackets Bureau, is prosecuting the criminal case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Gerard A. Brave, Bureau Chief, and Mark L. Katz, Deputy Chief, and Assistant District Attorney David S. Zadnoff, of the District Attorney’s Special Proceedings Bureau, is handling the civil case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Anthony M. Communiello, Bureau Chief, and Oscar W. Ruiz, Deputy Chief. Both the criminal and civil matters are under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Peter A. Crusco and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Linda M. Cantoni.
It should be noted that an indictment is merely an accusation and that defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
PokerListings Founder Andreas Oscarsson Murder for Hire
Swedish authorities investigating the murder of PokerListings.com founder Andreas Oscarsson are working on the assumption that the incident was a contract killing.
Oscarsson was found dead on August 3.
“At this point, we do not have any details other than he was found dead in his bed on the morning of August 3rd. He had been shot,” the PokerListings.com website reported at the time. PokerListings is one of the most recognized poker portals in the world.
Andreas left the operational side of PokerListings just over two years ago, shortly after the birth of his son.
The man moved to the United States ten years ago but originally came from Trollhättan and had been on holiday in Sweden when he was shot dead. Several relatives, including the 2-year-old boy, were in the house where the man was found dead.
Oscarsson was shot 6 times.
Ace King, Gambling911.com
Calling America’s Bluff on Internet Gambling
To persuade ourselves that we can keep this particular sin under control, we sequestered casinos in isolated places like Las Vegas and Atlantic City reachable only by superhighways, and isolated them on riverboats where not a single card could be dealt or slot lever pulled until the vessel left the dock.
In Mississippi, the law used to say you couldn’t have a casino unless it floated on water. After Hurricane Katrina forcibly relocated a few of these sin barges onto land, the Legislature, reading the disaster as a sign from God, revised the law to let them stay put. (The riverboat states, similarly, eventually allowed their floating casinos to remain dockside.) Then there are the Indian tribes that have fewer members on their rolls than slot machines in their multimillion-dollar casinos.
Which brings us to Internet gambling.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) have both introduced bills in Congress to lift a federal ban on much online play and clarify the law, which is even murkier than it is for physical casinos, if that’s possible. Their goals include taking a piece of the action for the U.S. Treasury, on the political principle that sins always seem less deadly when there’s money to be squeezed from them. The consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated in 2007 that legalization could yield as much as $43 billion in tax revenue over 10 years if it includes sports betting, $34 billion even if it’s not.
Another impetus is that new Federal Reserve and Treasury Department rules requiring banks and other financial institutions to block gambling transfers will go into effect Dec. 1, and the banks are screaming bloody murder about the added regulatory burden.
Internet gambling is one of those issues that shines a light on the distribution of juice in Washington.
The repeal bills delight casino companies such as Harrah’s Entertainment, which is hankering to expand its thriving poker business online and has spent about $1 million this year alone to lobby Congress for legalization. But they also leave intact a ban on Internet sports betting, which pleases outfits like the National Football League, no slouch in the Washington lobbying game.
It’s fair to say that the American approach to Internet gambling, which is legal in much of the rest of the world, is absurd. (Indeed, the federal ban placed the U.S. in Dutch with international trading partners that host online gambling companies, which have complained to the World Trade Organization that it violates trade treaties the U.S. signed.) State laws are wildly inconsistent and sometimes hypocritically excessive. “Martians might have a difficult time understanding that if you play poker online for money in the state of Washington, you’re committing a class C felony,” Joseph M. Kelly, a gambling-law expert at Buffalo State University in New York, told me. “That’s the same as rape.”
The Government Accountability Office, surveying the legal landscape in 2002, found that five states specifically outlawed Internet gambling: Illinois, Oregon, South Dakota, Nevada and Louisiana. (Washington enacted its ban in 2006.) Gambling in physical casinos was legal in every one.
On the federal level, conservatives in Congress slipped an Internet gambling ban onto the books in 2006 by quietly attaching it to an antiterrorism bill no sane lawmaker could oppose.
That federal law, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, has numerous flaws. It saddles financial institutions with the duty of enforcement by barring them from “knowingly accepting payments” derived from “unlawful Internet gambling.” But it doesn’t define what is unlawful.
It exempts fantasy sports and “skill” games, for example. But where does that leave the most popular online game, poker? The new regulations seem to outlaw the game, although its aficionados contend that it’s a game of skill pitting player against player. They contend it’s been swept into the gambling ban by lax regulation-drafting.
“This law and these regulations are simply a fraud,” says Howard Lederer, a world-class poker player on the board of the Poker Players Alliance, a Washington group that claims 1.2 million members. “People who had a moral agenda wrote laws and regulations that were vague. And banks, which have the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads and no clarity, are probably going to block poker transactions.”
As for other games, the Justice Department bases its position that all Internet gambling is illegal on the 1961 Wire Act, which outlaws the use of telecommunication services to place bets. But federal courts have upheld Wire Act prosecutions for sports betting alone, leaving unclear whether other online gambling is actually illegal under federal law.
Banks and credit card issuers aren’t happy about having to screen billions of financial transactions for signs they’re gambling-related starting a few weeks from now. An officer of the American Bankers Assn. told Congress last year that the proposed rules have “no prospect of practical success” in fulfilling the explicit rationale for the 2006 law, which was to combat money laundering.
Kelly thinks it might have the opposite effect. “You diminish reputable payment processors and replace them with those who don’t leave a paper trail,” he says.
It’s not as though the federal ban can wipe out online play any more than Prohibition wiped out drinking. It just deprives players of the protection of a U.S.-regulated environment. Gambling sites are generally regulated by their home countries — Britain, Ireland and Caribbean states such as Antigua among them — but that’s far to go for redress.
“If a player feels cheated, he’ll stop playing on the site,” says John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, “but without U.S. oversight, he can’t file a claim in an American court.” The Frank and Menendez bills would require sites serving U.S. players to accept U.S. legal jurisdiction in return for licensing.
Certainly Internet gambling has its hazards, including the prospect of addictive playing and the enticement of minors. But banning the pastime forces these problems into the shadows where they’re harder to address and makes it impossible to enlist the industry in helping to fight them.
It’s doubtful that Congress will act in time to put off the new regulations, especially given the more pressing issues on its plate. But next year isn’t too soon for it to relearn the lesson of every attempt to enforce a morality that most people don’t share. If you can’t eradicate, regulate — and take a big chunk out of the wages of sin while you’re at it. Michael Hiltzik’s column appears Mondays and Thursdays. Reach him at michael.hiltzik@latimes.com, read him at www.latimes.com/hiltzik, and follow @latimeshiltzik on Twitter.
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France Bans Betting Exchanges: Betfair Out!
France has effectively banned betting exchanges such as the wildly popular Betfair. The ban comes as a result to a surprise amendment appearing as part of that country’s new gambling laws.
For France, the similarities were eerily similar to what transpired in the United States during the late night hours of Congress’ last session in 2006. It was then that Republican Senator Jon Kyl joined forces with Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist, to stick an amendment prohibiting some forms of online gambling in a popular unrelated port security act. The new prohibition would go on to become the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act.
The France amendment also appeared last minute and seemingly without warning.
Under a surprise last-minute amendment, betting exchanges such as Betfair that allow punters to lay as well as place bets were excluded from the legislation in a move that the company described as “discriminatory”.
The French government has effectively outlawed the online betting exchange Betfair after passing an amendment to new gambling laws. These are being closely watched by sports bodies in the UK which are lobbying the government to bring in similar regulations.
Lawmakers referred to a 2007 report from the British Gambling Commission that said 9.8% of punters using betting exchanges developed gambling addictions
Betfair’s managing director, Mark Davies, said: “We will consider our position. It is fairly clearly discriminatory against the biggest and most competitive online operator in Europe. It is a slap in the face for the consumer.”
Sports bodies in Great Britain are also attempting to prevent betting exchanges through new legislative measures.
France Reluctantly Opening Its Doors
Sportingbet, PartyGaming, William Hill and 888 Holdings are among those that could apply for licences to operate online in France under laws scheduled to come into force by next June.However, all are likely to face high tax rates.
With an estimated three million French people believed to use gambling sites based outside France, Éric Woerth, the Budget Minister, said that he wanted a “controlled opening-up of the market”.
“I want to put an end to these parallel universes. I want to put an end to the jungle of illegal sites,” he said. “Prohibition doesn’t work. What is legal must chase away what is illegal.”
Left Wing MPs claim any new law legalizing online gambling would turn France into a nation of British-style gambling addicts.
Petter Nylander Arrest Still Fresh in Minds
France has long been at odds with the online gambling industry.
It was two years ago this month that the chief executive of online gaming company Unibet Group was arrested in the Netherlands on a French warrant.
The arrest followed proceedings filed in 2006 by the French lottery monopoly Francaise des Jeux and horse betting monopoly PMU against Unibet, alleging breach of the French national laws dating back to 1836 and 1891, the company said.
“Unibet is outraged by France’s total disregard of European Community law aiming to protect a domestic commercial gambling monopoly, which is being challenged by the European Commission. However disturbing French authorities’ methods are, for Unibet it is business as usual,” the company said in a statement at the time.
The European Union expressed outrage over the French action at the time.
Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
CSR Approved Casinos
