This past week, Brooklyn (NY) District Attorney, Charles Hynes and New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly jointly announced the take down of five illegal sports betting rings in Brooklyn.  The undertaking, known as “Operation Bettor Days,” halted an illegal gambling operation that took in over $20 million annually.

While the take down of illegal gambling operations is not new news, the way it operated certainly opened the eyes of law enforcement officials in New York and throughout the country.  There has always been a connection between sports betting and organized crime.  Many feel that it is the revenues from illegal sports betting that keep other criminal activities functioning. 

The unique aspect of this sports betting ring is that it operated through an online gambling website, and the receipts showed that the illegal wagers totalled over $5 million from this one site alone.  The way the operation worked was that sports bets would be taken via telephone and text messaging, and these bets would be forwarded to several online gambling sites.  The operation also involved loan sharking when sports bettors could not pay off their debts.  Money was loaned to these gamblers at a rate of 156 percent.

If there were Federal legislation of the sports betting industry, organized crime would not be involved in the process.  Funds to organized crime would be cut off and many other nefarious criminal activities would fall by the wayside.  Both the Federal government as well as the individual states would benefit financially from the arrangement, and the revenue from sports betting could support numerous social service undertakings.

Without Federal intervention and oversight of sports betting, online gambling will continue to be the depot for illegal bets.  With the incredible wagering demand created by the 2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer Championships in South Africa this summer, law enforcement officials have their hands full in trying to stem the tide of illegal gambling throughout the United States.

On the international front, the Polish people are involved in an election that will determine the fate of online gambling in the country.  If the former Speaker of the Parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski, is elected to the Presidential seat vacated by the death of Lech Kaczynski, it is generally believed that online gambling laws in Poland will be liberalized.