FBI launch Internet Sports Books Initiative to combat “emerging threat”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched what it’s calling the Internet Sports Books Initiative in a bid to crack down on the “emerging threat” of online sports betting connected with organized crime.

A week ago, the FBI’s official This Week podcast announced the commencement of its new Initiative against illegal online sports betting. The FBI claimed this business was “mostly” facilitated by “the Italian mafia and Asian crime groups” operating internationally-based websites that offer a “credit-based system” for placing sports wagers.

The Initiative “enhances efforts to disrupt and dismantle the criminal enterprises through prosecution and forfeiture.” While Supervisory Special Agent Nicholas Cheviron noted that the FBI’s efforts involved the cooperation of “local, state, federal and international partners” in achieving this aim, he offered no specifics on what, if anything, was new about the Initiative.

The FBI suffered a highly visible black eye this year via their unsuccessful prosecution of Paul Phua. The Malaysian national was arrested in July 2014 for allegedly operating an illegal online sportsbook out of three luxury villas at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, but the case was tossed this spring over the FBI’s unconstitutional evidence gathering tactics.