Why I fully believe BOS is an isolated incident
Beyond the fact that many executives have travelled here multiple times without arrest, there are clear indicators that the BOS situation is isolated.
First of all, the US government does not really want to shut down online gambling. If they did, they would take two actions.
1. They would go after every major media company like ESPN for their blatant ads.
2. They would go after countries like CR and Antigua and threaten embargos like Cuba. Facing lost tourism dollars and export/import, these countries would fold very quickly.
Second, even the most conservative bible thumping US attorney does not wake up this morning and say - hmmmm... There's some internet gambling going on, there's 2500 sites that take bets, I think I'll spend a few mill pursuing this one. That just isn't how it works.
What happens is this. Complaints come in about a business and then the business gets looked at.
For instance if an online store stiffed one customer, nothing would happen but if a few hundred complaints came in to various police departments, attorney generals, internet crime forces, the FBI, etc they all go into a database and when the complaints hit a threshold they get dumped on some US attorney's desk to investigate.
What most likely happened is BOS stiffed some players. It is reasonable that 50% of the players at BOS believed BOS was a company in the US. (They were in every magazine and claimed to be 100% legal) Many novice gamblers likely figured they were a legal company in the U.S.
When these people got stiffed, they called the cops, the internet crime divisions, attorney generals, the FBI, etc...
Say BOS had 1,000,000 customers. If they stiffed even .1%, that is 1000. (I know of at least 5 and I obviously don't know a lot of them). Now if 10% of the 1000 filed a complaint that's 100 complaints against BOS for theft.
Now these complaints get thrown on some attorneys desk or are sitting there for the picking by some attorney who hates gambling. Now you hve a company worthy of an investigation.
So back in 2000, an investigation starts. Now if this case was about online gambling, the investigation would have ended 1 day later. It took all of 30 seconds to realize BOS takes bets. But the US government doesnt want to pursue foreign companies for taking bets.
So the investigation goes on a little bit and it is found that:
Gary Kaplan owned BOS. He was taking bets in NY and FL.
That BOS shares offices with organized crime familes.
BOS duped the AIM with its bogus reports and ownership.
BOS stiffed many players. (Theft)
Advertising groups were actually taking bets in the US.
Etc.
Now you have an organized crime ring and Rico. Now you can throw the book at them.
IF this was about online gambling, BOS's execs would have been arrested 5 years ago when they came to the states.
The beastiality thing is another good example. It is very unlikely that a few years ago, ms Hanaway woke up and said hmmmmm there's some people out there banging sheep. I better look into this... Instead what happened is there were some complaints. Some animal rights groups complained. Some mothers probably witnessed an incident and complained. NOw it warrants and investigation.
So now, the key is to stay at books that do not warrant an investigation.
If I were a stiff book stiffing U.S. customers, I would be concerned.
This also is a very good way to get paid by stiff or slow pay books - pay me by Friday or I am calling the FBI and internet crime division (Hell you can do it anonymously)
-Sean
