00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid, Sam McQuillan is with us from Legal Sports
00:06Report.
00:07You can read more about these stories and a whole lot more over on their website.
00:11Great to have Sam back in the house.
00:13And Sam, let's get started here and start off with a sports bookie operation busted
00:20in Staten Island, finding out millions and millions of dollars, exchanging hands.
00:25Yeah, I mean, look, these still exist.
00:29I think it's important for people to know that these still exist.
00:31There's always going to be a market for this.
00:34And first, tell us more about the story, and then we'll dive into kind of why they do exist.
00:39Yeah, for sure, Craig, the New York Police Department arrested 17 people in Staten Island
00:45this past week, part of an alleged illegal sports betting ring run by the Gambino crime
00:50family.
00:51So the attorney general's office came out, unsealed this document with 84 counts of indictments
00:58across 17 individuals, allegedly saying that there was this sophisticated sports betting
01:04operation with an offshore sports book, and then the subsequent loan sharking operation
01:08where members of this alleged mob would go and try to get money from the people that
01:13had been betting with them, allegedly entangled roughly 70 bettors, and every week there would
01:19be about $500,000 in loans that they were trying to collect payments on.
01:25So a very old school kind of scenario here with a bookie and the Italian mob and Staten
01:33Island and things like that.
01:34And you talked about, you know, people are surprised maybe this still goes on.
01:40You know, you're alluding to the fact that New York legalized sports betting in January
01:442022.
01:45These crimes allegedly took place in September of that year, all the way to March of last
01:50year.
01:51So yeah, like you said, it still goes on, and I'm sure we'll get into more why.
01:55Yeah.
01:56And let's do that now, because I think that, you know, for new people who are watching
02:00this show, maybe the new sports bettor, let's be honest, Sam, there are a lot of folks that
02:05are streaming us.
02:06They're 20 years old, 21, 19, you know, prior to the offshore sports books, prior to offshore,
02:14again, kids may not be familiar with that as well, which were just basically sports
02:18betting has been around for a long time.
02:19You just had to do it illegally.
02:21There were literally people back in the day, back in my day, that you pick up the phone,
02:26you make a phone call.
02:28And Sam, the key to this with the sports betting is that the bookies role in this was essentially
02:34letting you bet without having to put any money up.
02:38So you just make a call and you say, give me X amount on something.
02:42They say, yes, no, maybe, I don't know how it would work.
02:46And I think that is still the lure for people.
02:50But I would tell you on a number of different levels, Sam, why that is bad.
02:54Number one, it's illegal.
02:55Number two, you have no, you know, you have no backing sometimes for the money.
03:00And when you're betting legally, you deposit money into an account, you can afford to lose
03:04money and here in this case, and we found out with Shohei Otani's interpreter the hard
03:08way here, sometimes you can't afford to lose the money that you're betting.
03:13Yeah, Craig, these are cautionary tales for sure.
03:16It could be enticing to have, let's say they start you off with $500 of credit a week,
03:20you bet on all these sports, by the end of the week, you're down, okay, I'll try to make
03:24it back next week, maybe you call your guy and but eventually they come to collect for
03:28sure.
03:29And with apps like DraftKings and FanDuel, you know, you deposit $10 $20 at a time, you
03:34lose the money, you have to put it back in the money is there being exchanged before
03:38you can actually put the bet down.
03:40So that's why these types of things are really attractive to bettors as well.
03:44You know, some people who bet a lot of money can get limited on these apps as well.
03:49But it's attractive to bookies because it's a really easy way to pile up debt.
03:53Now, what I thought was really interesting in this whole thing is when they unsealed
03:57the documents, they showed this transcripts of all these calls back and forth with these
04:01guys talking about how this would work talking about letting someone bet more and more until
04:06it's time to collect, you know, he had a really good week, it all come back to us next week.
04:11And then one really interesting nugget as well talking about, hey, this guy's been winning
04:14too much on certain kinds of boxing bets, certain specific rounds where you can make
04:19a lot of money if you're really know what you're doing.
04:21So you're saying, hey, we need to limit him and make sure he's just betting straight bets
04:24and money line bets.
04:25So for those out there who are, you know, banging the drum of legal sports books are
04:29limiting us, the offshore ones are limiting you as well, as long as you're winning a lot
04:33of money, they they want to make sure that you're losing.
04:35So these folks face up to 25 years in prison, numerous charges stemming from, you know,
04:41enterprise corruption, criminal usury, gambling promotion in the first degree.
04:46So they're in for a lengthy sentence, most likely will next appear in court next month.
04:52Okay.
04:53Interesting story there.
04:54All right.
04:55So now I think that this is a story that probably hits home for people.
04:59There's probably some people, by the way, Sam watching us discuss this saying, what
05:01are they?
05:02These guys don't know.
05:03Of course, I know what a bookie is.
05:04We thought we would educate you a little bit.
05:06Okay.
05:07So now you have that education.
05:08So then after the bookies came in, let's say about 20 years ago, I'm going to throw
05:12a number out there.
05:13All of a sudden you were able to bet online for people when the internet started on several
05:18different websites.
05:19This was before sports betting was legalized.
05:22And there are a ton of sports betting websites.
05:24But the problem is they were illegal.
05:26So they operated outside of the United States.
05:30And you would pay them how you would normally pay maybe FanDuel or DraftKings.
05:34But how you would get paid was very sketchy, to say the least.
05:37By the way, who you paid and how you got paid was very bizarre.
05:40Needless to say, one of these operators, and I'm not accusing them of anything, but they
05:44were the most popular for a long time, is Bovada.
05:47Now, Sam, they are still around and they operate in, again, offshore markets and also a very
05:55important tool to operate in markets where sports betting is not legal.
05:59Because again, if you live in a state where you can't bet on sports, you may find yourself
06:02to one of these.
06:03But sports betting now legal in Michigan, and they're trying to turn the tables on an
06:08offshore sports betting operator.
06:10What is the outcome going to be of this?
06:12Yeah, Craig, Bovada has been around for as long as I can remember and is still going
06:16strong today and really benefits from the proliferation of legal sports betting and
06:21all the advertising around that.
06:22A lot of people probably don't even know it's fully illegal in some legal states, but Michigan
06:27is leading the charge here, sending a cease and desist to Bovada.
06:30A couple of states have cracked down on it in the past.
06:33So they actually had until yesterday to leave the state.
06:36I haven't gotten any word on whether Bovada has actually complied.
06:40It's sort of tricky here because there's not much states can do when it's a company based
06:45in Curacao like Bovada is.
06:48But they have left states like New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Nevada in the past once they've
06:52gotten the threat.
06:54But now once states are seeing, OK, Michigan's doing this, Connecticut just saw their example
06:58and is going to do the same thing next week, I'm told, send a cease and desist to Bovada.
07:04So some regulators, you know, it's tough for them out, you know, trying to ensnare this
07:08whole.
07:09You've got illegal bookies, you've got offshore websites.
07:12It's a lot to handle.
07:13But Massachusetts as well is preparing action.
07:16I'm told that they actually got the idea at a gaming conference this week where they caught
07:21up with Connecticut regulators, caught up with Michigan regulators, and were kind of
07:24inspired by the charge they took.
07:26So it's really interesting to see everyone coalesced around this, whether or not Bovada
07:30will actually pull out, could have big, you know, ramifications for the offshore market
07:35like you alluded to.
07:36It's one of the biggest ones.
07:37It often gets confused as a legal one just because they're, you know, so present online
07:42and get picked up by a lot of legacy news outlets, quite frankly.
07:45So if Bovada were to leave, you know, three new states, like it's like, where does the
07:50buck stop?
07:51Are more states going to make it leave?
07:52And eventually, what does that do to the offshore market?
07:54Do, you know, more states get emboldened?
07:56Does the Department of Justice get involved, like the legal market's been asking forever?
08:01So it's an interesting development.
08:02We'll see what happens next in this whole Bovada scenario.
08:05Yeah, it certainly doesn't make any sense to me.
08:08I mean, Bovada is already operating illegally.
08:11So it feels like a state is saying, we're going to let you operate illegally continually,
08:16just not in our state.
08:18Very bizarre.
08:19But anyway, we'll read more about it over at Legal Sports Report.
08:22All right, real quick, PrizePix giving access to free problem gambling services, really
08:27good news for the industry here.
08:29Yeah, PrizePix making some good headlines.
08:32They're partnering with KindBridge Behavioral Health to essentially provide a range of mental
08:37health services for folks impacted by problem gambling, including clinical assessments,
08:42clinical reviews, care plan development, educational and peer support groups.
08:46They're essentially footing the bill for these really important services.
08:50It's a really good move for them.
08:51They've obviously been in some negative headlines recently.
08:54So it's a good opportunity for them to kind of get in front of everything on the problem
08:57gambling front.
08:58And hopefully other operators see it and are inspired.
09:00All right, Sam.
09:02Great stuff as always.
09:03Have a great rest of your week.
09:04We'll see you next week here on Newswire.
09:05Yeah.
09:06Thanks, Greg.
09:07You too.
