***JAY COHEN LOSES APPEAL***

[Jeff]

No details as of yet......

[azbob]

Offshore Internet Sports Gambling Conviction Upheld

Reuters
Jul. 31, 2001 17:01

NEW YORK - A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld one of the first convictions of a defendant charged with running an illegal offshore Internet sports gambling operation.

The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed last year's conviction of Jay Cohen, co-owner of World Sports Exchange, based on the Caribbean island of Antigua. Cohen, who was sentenced to 21 months in prison and fined $5,000, has remained on bail pending the outcome of the appeal.

A Manhattan federal jury found Cohen guilty of operating a sports betting business that illegally accepted bets and wagers on sporting events from Americans over the Internet and by telephone. Prosecutors said Cohen started his bookmaking e-business in 1996 and by 1998 it had received 60,000 phone calls from U.S. customers including 6,100 from New York.

Cohen, originally from Long Island, was one of the first defendants to stand trial in Manhattan in a series of offshore Internet sports gambling cases brought under the federal Wire Wager Act. Prosecutors said they believe his jury conviction was among the first for online offshore sports betting.

Under the Wire Wager law, it is illegal to use telephone lines in interstate or foreign commerce to place bets on sporting events. It also outlaws transmission of information that helps gamblers bet on sporting events and contests.

NO 'SAFE HARBOR'

Cohen's lawyers argued to the appeals court that WSE's activities were legal under a ``safe-harbor'' provision of federal law that allows transmissions if they are limited to mere information that assists in the placing of bets as opposed to facilitating the bets themselves.

They argued that the transmissions between WSE and its customers contained only information that enabled WSE itself to place bets from customer accounts located in Antigua.

However, the appeals court said the safe-harbor provision cannot be applied to transmission of betting information to a jurisdiction in which betting is illegal.

``There can be no dispute that betting is illegal in New York,'' the appeals court said.

Prosecutors alleged Cohen and other defendants tried to skirt U.S. law by running their operations from jurisdictions that allow gambling, such as Curacao, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Antigua and Costa Rica.

According to evidence presented at the two-week trial, Cohen's company solicited Americans through the Internet site www.sex.com and through a toll-free telephone number.

Prosecutors said Cohen's business also advertised in U.S. newspapers and magazines. The ads said U.S. customers could open a betting account with the company, wire money to fund the account and then bet on U.S. sporting events and contests.

Prosecutors said undercover FBI agents accessed the Internet sites and found information about betting on professional and college sporting events including basketball, hockey, baseball and football games.

The undercover agents then opened accounts by transferring money via Western Union and placed wagers on the games from computers and telephones in New York.

[Groz]

The whole world is all screwed up. The MGM Grand corporation and others related to Las Vegas are setting up shop in other lands through the internet.

The NCAA is trying to shut down all college betting and lines being shown in papers and media outlets, yet over 20 college basketball teams were scheduled to play IN casinos this year until recent pressure has moved the games out of the casinos. Aren't the AD's of the schools that make the schedules with the coaches, the same people that are fighting to have the NCAA ban?

The government doesn't come down on all of the lotteries, Indian casinos and how about Psychics, etc.?

How can laws be made, be enforced, when so many people have such different opinions on these matters. Everything usually comes down to money, but I don't know where all of this fits in.

I wish Jay and his family the best and hope that when people make rules and decisions in the future it will make sense.

Best of Luck,
Groz

[Dragon]

I agree groz. Crazy. It all comes down to money, like you said. Hopefully someday we can all look back and see how ridiculous this was.

Best wishes to Jay! He never gave up. He's a fighter.

[Steven]

I agree! As an individual who works closely with many in the gaming industry,we are faced with the hypocrasy of the US goverment!

The reality is that the same lawmakers, who publicly frown on gambling, pornography, smoking, alchohol, and sex. Go have their own poker games, buy Playboy, smoke pot, are drunks, and solicit prostitutes. People have the right do take part in victimless activites. The problem is that we have to amny people on the taxpayers payroll, who unless they can come up with a target, can't justify why they even have a job! :mad: