I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. - Thomas Jefferson

Friday, June 01, 2007

Score one for the morality police.

British gambling Web site operator BetOnSports PLC has pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges, prosecutors said.

U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway’s office has been pursing a 22-count criminal indictment against the London-based company and its top executives since July. Her office settled civil charges against BetOnSports in November, permanently barring the company from accepting bets from gamblers in the U.S.

BetOnSports founder Stephen Kaplan and Chief Executive David Carruthers remain under arrest, and the company’s plea deal will not end their prosecution, Hanaway said.

Now that the legal case is settled and access to the U.S. market is banned, BetOnSports is going out of business, said Jeffrey Demerath, an attorney representing BetOnSports in St. Louis.

“It is going to be wound up and closed down,” Demerath said.

BetOnSports had refused to send attorneys to criminal hearings in St. Louis federal court, claiming that Hanaway had no authority to charge the foreign company, which took a majority of its bets from U.S. customers but processed the wagers in Costa Rica and elsewhere.

“This plea constitutes a submission by the company to the U.S. justice system,” Hanaway said in a statement. “This plea, combined with the terms of the civil junction, should put an end to the BetonSports illegal gambling empire.”

The reason for the prosecution?  The bets were placed by Americans.  Even though it is a British company which processes bets out of Costa Rica, the long arm of US law was able to bring them down.  I just hope that Antigua comes through for us.

Anyone remember when conservatism was about commerce, individual liberty, and the free market?  Now it’s about making sure that the population adheres to a strict moral code.  Gambling, from the privacy of your own home?  We can’t have that now, can we?