MAJOR ISRAELI CRACKDOWN ON INTERNET GAMBLING
20 November 2009
300 police and tax officials raid venues
across the country
The Israeli authorities renewed efforts to clamp down
hard on Internet gambling operations allegedly operating
from within the Middle Eastern country this week, with
the Jerusalem Post reporting that three hundred police
officers and tax authority officials raided 37 homes
across the country and arrested up to 30 suspects.
Police sources said that following a year-long
investigation it was believed that the online gambling
ring's website at Bet555.net, later Betbet.us, had
brought in over 340 million shekels (around US$90 275
326) for its Israeli owners over a three year period.
The raids were carried out by the Israeli police's
special unit Lahav 433, accompanied by officials from
the national tax authority, state prosecutors and
representatives from the Israel Money Laundering
Prohibition Authority. Initial reports said that tens of
millions in assets including cars were confiscated and
160 bank accounts in various banks were seized.
In preparing for the operation, Israeli police obtained
twenty court orders prior allowing them to seize
suspects' vehicles and assets.
Central to the
allegations is an as yet unnamed 38-year-old from Or
Yehuda.
"We employed techniques to monitor the
website which are very similar to eavesdropping," a
police source told The Jerusalem Post. He went on to
describe the gambling ring as a "pirate sports gambling
industry that has taken in more than NIS 340 million
since 2007."
The police spokesman claimed that
Internet gambling is associated with criminal
organisations and "....brings with it other forms of
serious crimes, like aggravated extortion, violence,
money laundering, tax offenses, and theft of monies from
public funds."
An elaborate hi-tech support
network enabled the website's ongoing operation, police
said, including a website construction team, a technical
support team, and betting agents.
"Millions of
shekels in clean profit were made by the website's
operators," police claimed. "Between April 2007 and June
2009, 70 million visits were recorded on the website,
mostly by gamblers," police added.
Police said
Monday's raids were the result of the first undercover
investigation led by the Joint Intelligence Center
(JIC).
In March 2007, the government set up the
JIC and tasked it with providing information to various
police and Tax Authority task forces investigating crime
organizations.
The center is based in the
Intelligence Branch of the Israel Police headquarters in
Jerusalem. It includes police representatives, Tax
Authority officials, and members of the Money Laundering
Prohibition Authority.
Online Casino News Courtesy of
Infopowa
More news here.
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