Online Sports Betting Kingpin Sentenced to Four Years
by Devon Chappell, News Staff Writer
November 9, 2009
One of the most infamous names in the world of online
gambling, Gary Kaplan, has been sentenced to four years
and one month in a U.S. penitentiary, following a
drawn-out manhunt and even longer trial that will
effectively give Kaplan only a couple of more years in
the slammer.
Kaplan was the the founder of BetOnSports.com,
which at one point in time, was an online gambling
empire responsible for taking a large dent of online
gambling traffic coming out of the U.S. To be more
precise, it was approximately $50 million in wagers
according to the U.S. government - an amount which
Kaplan must forfeit as part of his sentence.
Try visiting BetOnSports.com these days, and you will
get nothing but an invalid url message. That's because
the U.S. government also confiscated the domain, whose
future is really anybody's guess. If and when online
gambling becomes regulated in the U.S. it will be
interesting to see if any of the blacklisted domains
seized by the government (and the State of Kentucky)
over the years, will be auctioned off in a manner
similar to the way drug dealers cars' go on auction.
Heck, Kaplan might even be out of jail in time to buy
the domain back. As mentioned, Kaplan has been in
custody since 2007, after being detained in the
Dominican Republic. Turning out to not be a safe haven
after all, the Dominican Republic was where Kaplan fled
to around the time when BetOnSports Chief Executive,
David Caruthers, was arrested in Dallas back in 2006,
not to mention Kaplan's sister and brother who also
worked behind the scenes at BetOnSports.
All three are still awaiting their sentencing. For
Caruthers, who was fortunate enough to be released on
bail, albeit house arrest, sentencing will take place on
January 8, 2010. Kaplans sentencing will likely dictate
how well things go for his siblings and Caruthers.
As part of a plea agreement (details undisclosed),
Kaplan plead guilty to racketeering, conspiracy and
other charges - namely related to illegally taking
online sports bets from U.S. citizens. Even though
Kaplan's business was shut down and dent was put on
illegal online sports betting in the U.S., stats now
show it was just a very, very small dent - one which
once again begs the question, "Is a ban an effective
solution to keeping crime and addiction out of online
gambling?"
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