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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