Kansas City
Case was Not Online Gambling
February
24, 2010
Interestingly enough, the
case involving a Kentucky man that was charged with online gambling has
been reported incorrectly. We are among those that reported this as
being a conviction regarding online gambling, and that it was the first
one within the United States where someone was actually going to jail
for it. However, the charge was sports betting, not online gambling and
there is a difference.
The story goes that Michael Badalucco was convicted of online gambling
for running an online casino where he paid out players who participated
at his site. This is not the case. Badalucco was running a sports book
and that the federal investigation into the online gambling scheme found
that it did not involve an online casino or internet poker as was
previously thought. The Kansas City Star was the first to report that
online gambling was the charge, and everyone else followed suit – but
according to the feds, this is not the case.
Badalucco did not break the terms of the
Wire Act, which is the only online gambling charge that they are able to
levy against someone right now. But sports betting is illegal in the
United States, which is why he got into trouble. Under the terms of the
Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, he was offering sports
betting which is illegal.
They say that the charge of online gambling never came into play and
that had it there would have been a much bigger deal made about it. It
would have set precedents across the US when it came to the question of
online gambling, and this is not the case at all. Instead, the honor of
being the first person arrested under online gambling rules and
regulations is still up for grabs.
