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Senator Ray Leniak had sponsored the online gambling bill for voting in the New Jersey Senate on May 31. But due to lack of political support, from both the Democrats and the Republicans, the bill was not put to vote at all. There have been opinions that it will probably get postponed till autumn session.

The Developments

Earlier in May, the bill had already been passed through the committee level. It had got support from the Senate side. Senator Lesniak, therefore, was very positive about the voting on the bill on May 31.

Nevertheless, Raymond Lesniak had got concerned about Gov. Chris Christie’s political ambitions. Previously, he had lent support for Internet gambling legislation. Christie had vetoed Lesniak’s similar Internet gambling legislation last year.

The said bill included assigning some of the revenue from internet gambling to supplement the state’s horse racing industry. The bill needed to undergo changes and one of them included removing the racing supplement clause.

But Governor Chris Christie provided a wavering support to the bill. This ambivalence on the part of the governor led to weak Republican votes. Yet Lesniak was of the opinion that they would not need these votes for the bill to pass. This is because the New Jersey legislature is largely Democrat-controlled.

Lesniak contributed this wavering support of Christie to presidential politics. According to him, the ambivalent support was the result of strong opposition from Sheldon Adelson. A big Republican donor, Adelson, is also the CEO of Las Vegas Sands casino. He is considered as an important figure who is lending support to Republican Mitt Romney. Romney is thought to be a possible competitor to Christie in his president run.

The Conclusion

As stated earlier, Lesniak had thought that the bill won’t need republic votes to pass in the Democrat-controlled New Jersey legislature.

But there were not enough Democratic votes either to pass the bill. This resulted due to the opposition from the horse racing industry regarding the supplement change. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie also nursed an ambivalent attitude which led to the failure of passing the bill.

Lesniak was of the opinion that the Governor seemed to denote that he preferred the bill not to pass until fall. The general opinion is that Governor Christie is under pressure from the larger party considerations. Especially the Republican Party donors like Adelson may not be in favor if an online gambling bill is being passed. And this could affect his becoming the president, which led him to sacrifice New Jersey online gambling for his own political interests.

Before the happenings, Lesniak had a positive frame of mind regarding the Internet Gambling Bill New Jersey legislature passing to take place by end of June. But with the failure to pass, the wait will be a long shot as the legislature has off in July and August.

There has been a large difference of opinion and a survey even showed that 58 percent of New Jersey residents were against online gambling legislature. But the same margin voters were in favor of sports betting (Fairleigh Dickinson University, PublicMind Poll). What conclusion this controversy will lead to is to be seen and it seems to be a rather long-run process.

On Monday, May 23, 2011, 11 bank accounts based in North Carolina, Charlotte, Panama, Malta, the Netherlands, and Portugal were seized. In addition, ten domain names which are connected to online gambling sites were also taken over. These included Funtimebingo.com, Bookmaker.com, 2Betsdi.com, Goldenarchcasino.com, Truepoker.com, Beted.com, Betmaker.com, and Betehorse.com. Now, if anybody tries to gain access to these websites, they will be greeted by a banner which states that these sites have been seized.

The Announcement

The announcement over these seizures was made be Rod J. Rosenstein, US Attorney for the District of Maryland. He stated that “It is illegal for Internet gambling enterprises to do business in Maryland, regardless of where the website operator is located. We cannot allow foreign website operators to flout the law simply because their headquarters are based outside the country.”

William Winter, Special Agent in Charge of ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations in Baltimore, added that the indictments were due to the extensive undercover work carried out by his agents along with other law enforcement organizations based in Maryland. He went on to say that most of the time the money made from illegal online gambling was used in organized crimes and in other forms of criminal activities. The ICE will continue to crack down on this illegal activity in order to bring an end to this form of financial crime, whether within the USA or abroad.

Those Involved

ThrillX is a registered company located within British Columbia, Canada. It has an office in Vancouver and also further afield in San Jose, Costa Rica. It functions as a software solutions provider for online sports book and casinos. BMX Entertainment is located in Limassol, Cyprus, and provides online sports betting for six websites.

These companies have been charged with providing illegal online sports betting. They are run from outside the USA, but most of the players are based in the country. A main issue is that for funds to move to and from the gamblers, they need to use the US banking system, known as payment processors.

Payment Processors

In general, an online gambling operator tells the payment processor to take the money from a player in the USA which can then be used as wagers. The money is then moved into a bank located offshore. The operator then transfers money, either as a wire transfer or a check, from a foreign bank and to the payment processor. The payment processor then gives the winnings out to the appropriate players.

Seizure warrants were used against an undercover payment processor company known as Linwood Payment Solutions. The company is thought to have been processing gambling transactions since 2009 for a number of gambling organizations.

The defendants involved in the case will face up to five years imprisonment. They will be charged with running an illegal gambling organization. A maximum of 20 years will be afforded to those charged with money laundering.