• Celebrities taking a gamble

November 16, 2005 - Ventura is the new spokesman for BetUS.com, a Web site operated from Costa Rica that lets people wager on sports contests from their home computers. "This is a step toward bringing something above-board that clearly many people want to partake in," Ventura said. In a sign of an increased acceptance of Internet gambling, online casinos in recent months have signed endorsement deals with a group of celebrities, including Tom Arnold, the actor; Brooke Burke, a model turned television host; and Jim Kelly, a former quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. But there is a big potential catch: these stars and others who profit by promoting offshore casinos could be putting themselves in legal jeopardy. The government considers these Internet sports books to be violating American law by providing unlicensed gambling on domestic shores. Further, the government has said in the past that it could prosecute Americans who promote and assist such foreign operations for effectively aiding and abetting their illegal activities. "There's a good chance they are criminally liable for the crime itself," said I. Nelson Rose, a professor at Whittier Law School in California and the author of "The Law of Internet Gaming." For celebrities who draw attention from law enforcement officials, he said, "the downside danger is enormous." The Justice Department declined to comment for this article. For his part, Ventura said he was not aware that federal law prohibits Internet gambling operations; his management company, he said, told him that the deal would not be a problem. But Ventura also counters with a populist message that, in essence, millions of Americans who gamble online cannot be wrong. And in that regard, the relationship between casinos and celebrities--who can easily earn six-figure deals for one-year endorsement contracts--underscores the steep challenge Washington faces in policing this growing offshore industry. The overseas casinos, which allow people to play poker against other gamblers, engage in table games like blackjack and bet on sports, are legal and licensed in dozens of countries. In Britain, some casinos are listed on public stock exchanges. Internet gambling is projected to reach almost $12 billion in business this year, up from $8.3 billion in 2004, according to Sebastian Sinclair, a gambling industry analyst with Christiansen Capital Advisors. Americans account for more than half of the amount wagered, Internet casino executives and industry analysts say. The popularity has soared in recent years with the boom in poker, particularly Texas Hold 'Em, and its increasing prominence on cable television. Credit card balk Still, the industry insists that online gambling would be much larger were it not for efforts by federal prosecutors and some financial institutions. Over the last five years, many American banks that issue credit cards have apparently slowed the industry's growth by refusing to accept transactions processed by Internet casinos. Americans participating in the betting have turned to online payment services that allow them to place bets with money put into an escrow account. Last year, faced with an investigation by a federal prosecutor in St. Louis, several big-name media companies, including Clear Channel and Infinity Broadcasting radio, stopped accepting advertisements for offshore casinos. The Internet search sites Yahoo and Google later made the same decision. But ads for online gambling sites are still widely available in magazines, and on radio and cable television channels, including ESPN. And some ads have returned to Clear Channel stations. In 2004, the United States attorney's office for the Eastern District of Missouri vowed to pursue sports gambling sites, "as well as the promoters, aiders and abettors of such criminal enterprises." Lawyers representing Internet gambling operations, however, said that it appeared the investigation had stopped, or at least slowed considerably. Jaclyn Lesch, a Justice Department spokeswoman, declined to comment, saying the investigation was continuing. [...]

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