Illegal gambling accounts for $150 billion in the United States alone.

Source: Joe Drape, “Web Site puts Focus on the Fix in Sports Bets,” New York Times, May 25, 2008.

A column in Bloomberg News claims that up to $7 billion was illegally gambled on the Super Bowl last week. Joe Saumarez-Smith, a UK gambling consultant, argues that the NFL is losing over a billion dollars in potential revenue from football bets were it to be legal.  The NFL, worried about corruption and organized crime becoming involved in the sport, has strongly opposed any association with gambling.

Read the column at Bloomberg News.

More and more officials in China are being found to have been gambling with state funds in Macao.

From the New York Times:

Mr. Li is one of an increasing number of Communist Party bosses and government officials who, government prosecutors say, pillaged state funds, company accounts and municipal treasuries to try their luck in Macao, which sits just across the border from Guandong Province.

Many of the biggest losers have been sent to prison and at least 15 have been executed. Some have committed suicide. The scandals have become a source of deep embarrassment for the Chinese government, which has now begun cracking down on travel visas for Macao.

While gambling remains illegal in mainland China, it is pure oxygen for Macao, which Portugal handed back to China in December 1999. The tiny territory, which has been enjoying a gambling-tourist-building boom since 2004, relies on gambling for 75 percent of its tax base.

The amount of money taken from state accounts ranged as high as $24 million.  The losses by state officials are equally impressive.

A 2008 study of 99 high rollers from mainland China showed that 59 had some sort of state affiliation: 33 were government officials, 19 were senior managers at state-owned enterprises and 7 were cashiers at state businesses. They were typically men, between 30 and 49 years old, and lived in mainland areas close to Macao.

The government officials reported losing an average of $2.7 million each, according to the study, which was conducted by Zeng Zhonglu, a professor at Macao Polytechnic Institute. State managers lost $1.9 million each, on average, and cashiers dropped an average of $500,000. Most said their gambling careers lasted less than four years before they were found out.

Their losses at the tables bankrupted at least 10 companies. An editorial in the Beijing Youth Daily said gambling by public officials “threatens the safety of the national treasury,” though it is unclear just how much public money has been gambled away.

An online gambling founder will forfeit $300 million to US Authorities after pleading guilty to anti-gambling laws.

From the BBC:

The billionaire co-founder of an internet gambling company has pleaded guilty to violating US internet laws and agreed to forfeit $300m (£192m).

Anurag Dikshit, co-founder of the UK-listed company PartyGaming, entered the plea in a New York federal court.

He is charged with violating federal gambling laws, an offence which could incur a prison term of up to two years.

Mr Dikshit, an Indian national with an estimated fortune of $1.6bn, declined to comment to reporters.

The US justice department said Mr Dikshit, 37, had pleaded guilty to one count of “using the wires to transmit bets and wagering information”.

The Washington Post has an investigative series into the world of Online Poker.

Read the series here.

New rules established by the US Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve has essentially made Internet gambling illegal as it placed restrictions on the ability of gambling sites to pay winnings.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve issued rules that bar financial companies from processing payments connected to most gambling Web sites, effectively making Internet gambling illegal.

The rules, issued Wednesday, give companies until Dec. 1, 2009, to comply with a ban that covers credit-card transactions, electronic transfers and checks related to Internet gambling.

Democratic lawmakers, the banking sector and elements of the gambling industry have registered opposition to the move.

Betting experts are stating that an anti-gambling agency is needed to help regulate the international gambling market and to eliminate illegal gambling rings.

From the AP (via IHT):

The global sports industry needs an international agency to fight illegal gambling and match-fixing, betting experts said Monday.

Corrupt betting — worth tens of billions of dollars each year to criminal gangs — ranks alongside doping as the biggest threat to the integrity of sport, speakers said at a conference in Switzerland.

Investigators said they need an equivalent of the World Anti-Doping Agency to coordinate the fight against illegal bookmakers and syndicates attempting to fix matches and races.

“What you will need in years to come is something like WADA, an agency that investigates betting-related corruption across all the sports,” said Paul Scotney, head of the British Horseracing Authority’s groundbreaking integrity unit.

Gaming companies said they wanted global sports organizations — like FIFA and the International Olympic Committee — to help persuade lawmakers to open up and regulate national betting markets.

Russia’s plan to build a city dedicated to gambling is hitting a snag due to the global financial crisis, leading some to worry that a black market in illegal gambling could emerge.

From USA Today:

Russia’s grandiose scheme to build a Las Vegas from scratch in 18 months is turning into a sour bet because of the sinking global economy.

The plan calls for shutting down dozens of casinos in Moscow and St. Petersburg by July 1 and moving big-city gambling to four far-flung reaches of Russia, including building an entire new city along the Azov Sea.

“It’s just not going anywhere fast,” says Joseph Weinert of Spectrum Gaming Group, a U.S. firm that advised on developing one of the resorts. “The clock is ticking, and as far as we can tell there is going to be no gambling in these (planned resorts) come July 1.”

If the casinos close and gamblers have nowhere to place their bets, organized crime could step in to offer illegal gambling, much like speak-easies that sprang up during Prohibition of alcohol in the USA in the 1920s.

An on-line gambling site in the Philippines was busted by South Korean Officials after making over $100 million over 18 months. 

From the AFP:

The ring allegedly opened a casino in Manila in February last year. They hired 30 Filipino dealers and webcast baccarat games being staged at the casino to domestic online participants.

In order to assure online gamblers they were taking part in real-time games, the ring depicted CNN broadcasts in its online coverage.

Some online gamblers wired more than 100,000 dollars for a single bet.

The suspects allegedly earned 100 million dollars over 18 months until their operation was busted in August, the prosecutors added.

In an attempt to protect its local gambling industry, the US State of Kentucky is asking a court to allow it to seize 140 domain names of Internet gambling sites.

From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Kentucky is commandeering 141 domain names of Internet gambling sites in a novel legal move to crack down on the unregulated industry.

Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate ordered the names transferred to the state last week, Gov. Steve Beshear announced Monday.

Sites affected include such names as caribbeangold.com and sportsbook.com.

If officials get their way at a Sept. 25 forfeiture hearing, the state will control the domain names and can ask Web registrars to block access to the sites, said Justice and Public Safety Secretary J. Michael Brown.

Kentucky would become the first state to seize a gambling operation’s domain name, Brown said.

He acknowledged that such a move could block access to the domains worldwide, but said he was interested only in its effect on Kentucky.

Beshear, who supports allowing casino gambling in Kentucky, called the online operations “leeches on our communities.” Kentucky loses tens of millions of dollars a year to online gambling, which is illegal in every state, he said.