Effects of Calvin Ayre's indictment
Chad Millman
ESPN INSIDER
The indictment against Calvin Ayre and his Bodog co-conspirators is six pages long. And, if you are a connoisseur of this brand of storytelling, it is not particularly scintillating. The sexiest part is that the Department of Justice seized the Bodog name and that Bodog worked with two payment processors that, between 2005-2012, paid the gambling site nearly $100M from bettors in Maryland.
Truth be told, that is a scintilla of what Ayre and Bodog have cleared since the site first launched. It's become standard protocol when writing about Ayre to mention that he posed in Forbes under the headline, "Catch Me If You Can" in 2006. It was a cheeky dare of the US government from a Canadian who was living in Costa Rica and operating a business that skirted American laws. At the time, one of the original off-shore bookmakers, Jay Cohen, was just a few years removed from being released from prison for violating the 1961 Wire Act. In the Forbes piece, Ayre was listed as being worth at least $1 billion.
<offer>That was in 2006, six years ago. In Internet betting years that is like a generation. Or two. The multiple of what Ayre must be worth from his time with Bodog, is incalculable. At least for me. But consider this: According to the last government study of sports betting in the United States, which was done in 1999, upwards of $300 billion was bet illegally. In the 13 years since, all of betting has become more mainstream and online sports books, in particular, have become the bookies of choice for most casual bettors, whether they be frat guys, Wall Streeters or even occupiers. If Ayre was worth $1 billion in 2006, the past six years have only served to make as rich as your average Russian oligarch.
Left out of the indictment is that, at the end of the day, it doesn't mean squat. Not to Ayre, who has so much money he spends most of his time living abroad drinkin' and gamblin', as his website says. He has as much need for the United States as well, a Russian oligarch.
And it means zilch to Bodog, a domain that hasn't been used in the United States for several months. Remember, last summer the company rebranded itself Bovada. Taking that name at this point is a little like claiming you've captured the flag long after everyone has gone in for dinner. It's a ghost.
Trying to guess the DOJ's motives regarding Internet gambling has become a favorite parlor game amongst industry insiders the past 18 months. This world is swirling right now.
It began last April, when the DOJ seized the domains and shut down the dominant online poker sites: Absolute, Full Tilt and PokerStars. It continued less than two months later, when the same Assistant US Attorney in Maryland who indicted Ayre seized the domains of several high profile online sports books.
What's interesting is the impact, both immediate and long-term, these seizures and shutdowns are having on two distinct forms of gambling. In the poker space, the size of the industry is a fraction of what it was 11 months ago. But those inside the Internet gambling industry see a silver lining, at least a conspiratorial one. Federal legislation to legalize online poker has been in a permanent state of being thisclose to passing for nearly two years. Remember, this industry is full of anti-government, anti-corporate renegades who, by nature, want to live their lives by their rules, playing when they want to play and making their money however they please. They remain convinced that the DOJ pulled the plug on Internet poker so the even bigger casino companies would have a clear path into the game once online poker was legalized. One step backward for them, one giant leap forward for anyone who thinks online poker should be legalized.
The seizure of sports betting domains is different. When that first happened last spring, it turned even the hardest veterans soft. They threw their hands up and said, I've had it. But, the reality is, nothing changed. Bettors still found outs. Online sports books still offered numbers. Money was made, and money was lost.
That won't change, no matter how many times Calvin Ayre gets indicted.
</offer>
Chad Millman
ESPN INSIDER
The indictment against Calvin Ayre and his Bodog co-conspirators is six pages long. And, if you are a connoisseur of this brand of storytelling, it is not particularly scintillating. The sexiest part is that the Department of Justice seized the Bodog name and that Bodog worked with two payment processors that, between 2005-2012, paid the gambling site nearly $100M from bettors in Maryland.
Truth be told, that is a scintilla of what Ayre and Bodog have cleared since the site first launched. It's become standard protocol when writing about Ayre to mention that he posed in Forbes under the headline, "Catch Me If You Can" in 2006. It was a cheeky dare of the US government from a Canadian who was living in Costa Rica and operating a business that skirted American laws. At the time, one of the original off-shore bookmakers, Jay Cohen, was just a few years removed from being released from prison for violating the 1961 Wire Act. In the Forbes piece, Ayre was listed as being worth at least $1 billion.
<offer>That was in 2006, six years ago. In Internet betting years that is like a generation. Or two. The multiple of what Ayre must be worth from his time with Bodog, is incalculable. At least for me. But consider this: According to the last government study of sports betting in the United States, which was done in 1999, upwards of $300 billion was bet illegally. In the 13 years since, all of betting has become more mainstream and online sports books, in particular, have become the bookies of choice for most casual bettors, whether they be frat guys, Wall Streeters or even occupiers. If Ayre was worth $1 billion in 2006, the past six years have only served to make as rich as your average Russian oligarch.
Left out of the indictment is that, at the end of the day, it doesn't mean squat. Not to Ayre, who has so much money he spends most of his time living abroad drinkin' and gamblin', as his website says. He has as much need for the United States as well, a Russian oligarch.
And it means zilch to Bodog, a domain that hasn't been used in the United States for several months. Remember, last summer the company rebranded itself Bovada. Taking that name at this point is a little like claiming you've captured the flag long after everyone has gone in for dinner. It's a ghost.
Trying to guess the DOJ's motives regarding Internet gambling has become a favorite parlor game amongst industry insiders the past 18 months. This world is swirling right now.
It began last April, when the DOJ seized the domains and shut down the dominant online poker sites: Absolute, Full Tilt and PokerStars. It continued less than two months later, when the same Assistant US Attorney in Maryland who indicted Ayre seized the domains of several high profile online sports books.
What's interesting is the impact, both immediate and long-term, these seizures and shutdowns are having on two distinct forms of gambling. In the poker space, the size of the industry is a fraction of what it was 11 months ago. But those inside the Internet gambling industry see a silver lining, at least a conspiratorial one. Federal legislation to legalize online poker has been in a permanent state of being thisclose to passing for nearly two years. Remember, this industry is full of anti-government, anti-corporate renegades who, by nature, want to live their lives by their rules, playing when they want to play and making their money however they please. They remain convinced that the DOJ pulled the plug on Internet poker so the even bigger casino companies would have a clear path into the game once online poker was legalized. One step backward for them, one giant leap forward for anyone who thinks online poker should be legalized.
The seizure of sports betting domains is different. When that first happened last spring, it turned even the hardest veterans soft. They threw their hands up and said, I've had it. But, the reality is, nothing changed. Bettors still found outs. Online sports books still offered numbers. Money was made, and money was lost.
That won't change, no matter how many times Calvin Ayre gets indicted.
</offer>
