Calvin Ayre indicted, Bodog.com domain grabbed, yet business is as usual

Bodog is unquestionably one of the primary names in online gaming since they've been performing from the mid 90's. Unfortunately, they’re such a great name that the us  team of Homeland Protection has been making a case against Bodog. This lately resulted in the seizure of the website name Bodog.com, which was reported by CalvinAyre.com.

The good news is that Bodog.com isn’t actually that vital  to the company’s operation since American gamers use Bovada Poker now; those outside of the United States Of America utilize the domain name Bodog.eu. So it doesn’t actually make much sense that the Department of Homeland Security would waste their time confiscating this web site name.

For Bodog founder Calvin Ayre’s ideas on the issue, he was quoted as saying, “Not certain what to say. BodogBrand.com is a brand-licensing firm based outside the united states. The company left the market industry this past year and the domain in question has been dormant globally for longer than that.” He added, “We are only recently doing brand licensing deals outside the united states so this domain had no location in any of our present plans.”

Bodog founder Calvin Ayre has been indicted by federal prosecutors in Baltimore and the Bodog.com website name has been grabbed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

In the indictment unsealed currently, Ayre, James Phillip, David Ferguson and Derrick Maloney are charged with performing a gambling business in addition to cash laundering. Rod Rosenstein, the U.S. Attorney in Baltimore, alleges that the defendants "did knowingly and unlawfully conduct finance, control, supervise, direct, and have all or part of an illegal gambling business, to wit, a gambling business involving on-line sports wagering."

"Sports wagering is illegal in Maryland, and federal law prohibits bookmakers from flouting that law mainly because they're positioned  outside of the nation," stated Rosenstein. "Numerous of the damages which underline gambling prohibitions are increased once the businesses run over the internet with out rules."

The indictment alleges which Bodog communicated with two processors to facilitate repayments with players. The processors named in the indictment were JBL Providers, that apparently prepared at least $43 million, and ZipPayments, that allegedly processed a minimum of $57 million. Money from each those processors was once grabbed by the IRS back in 2008.

Ayre responded to the indictments with a statement on his internet site, CalvinAyre.com.

“I see this as misuse of the U.S. criminal justice system for the industrial obtain of large U.S. businesses," he stated. "It is apparent that free blackjack sector is legal under worldwide law and in the case of all of these paperwork is it additionally clear that the rule of law wasn't allowed to slow down a rush to attempt to try to win the war of public opinion."

Site visitors who log onto Bodog.com are welcomed with a Department of Justice seizure notice like the one which was plastered on the house pages of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and UB.com back on April fifteen, 2011. Nonetheless, the main difference in this notice is that it was issued by the Department of Homeland Security and not the FBI.

The seizure should not affect the short-term business of Bodog. The Bodog.com website name hasn't been in make use of since late this past year. That domain name had recently been switched to Bodog.eu and American gamers have been capable to access Bovada.lv since December. Each of those web sites  are up and running as always.