Another Illegal Online Gambling Operator Pleads Guilty

Gambling News - February 23rd, 2010 - Written By Glen

Illegal gambling operations are regularly coming under fire from the federal government, especially when the gambling operations pertain to sports betting.

Charles J. Simone, 24, is the most recent indictment. Simone had passed up his right to a grand jury, submitting a guilty plea to Robert E. Larsen, U.S. Magistrate Judge. He was charged with conducting an illegal gambling business. Earlier in February, Michael V. Badalucco, 26, had plead guilty for taking part in the same illegal sports betting scheme.

Simone and Badalucco had been providing an illegal sportsbook for players in the area. Not only had they founded a 1-800 number, based in Costa Rica, as well as an online portal through which wagers could be placed.

In Simone's case, he had submitted an admission that he was one of the operators in the illegal sports betting scheme that began in March of 2006, covering the Kansas City, Missouri area. Over $140,000 dollars had been wagered through this operation.

Online gambling has been reaching levels of popularity previously unheard of, but even small operations such as the one in which Simone had had a stake manage to survive. Many USA online gambling sites offer sports betting, but many of these sports betting sites lay outside of the United States. While some international sites, such as BetOnSports, had been prosecuted, shut down, and even saw imprisonment, it is those that operate within the United States that are truly at risk of feeling the iron fist of the law.