US authorities on Tuesday seized the gambling website Bodog and announced the indictment of four Canadians on charges of illegal sports betting, including founder Calvin Ayre.
The federal grand jury indictment of Bodog Entertainment Group, Ayre, James Philip, David Ferguson and Derrick Maloney was unsealed in Baltimore, Maryland, US Attorney Rod Rosenstein said in a statement.
"Sports betting is illegal in Maryland, and federal law prohibits bookmakers from flouting that law simply because they are located outside the country," Rosenstein said. "Many of the harms that underlie gambling prohibitions are exacerbated when the enterprises operate over the Internet without regulation."
The indictment accuses Bodog and the four Canadians of conducting an illegal online sports gambling business and conspiring to commit money laundering between June 2005 and January 2012.
"The defendants and their conspirators allegedly moved funds from Bodog's accounts located in Switzerland, England, Malta, Canada and elsewhere to pay winnings to gamblers, and to pay media brokers and advertisers located in the United States," the US Attorney's office said.
"The conspirators directed payment processors to send at least $100 million by wire and by check to gamblers located in Maryland and elsewhere," it said.
It was not immediately clear whether any of the four indicted Canadians were in US custody.
In an affidavit supporting a seizure warrant for the Bodog.com website domain name, a former employee of Bodog was quoted as saying the gambling operation has hundreds of employees in Canada and Costa Rica.
In a statement on his website, Ayre, who is described by Forbes magazine as a former billionaire, said the Bodog.com domain name has been dormant for some time.
"Not sure what to say," Ayre said. "BodogBrand.com is a brand-licensing organisation based outside the US.
"The brand left the market last year and the domain in question has been dormant globally for longer than that," Ayre said. "We are only currently doing brand licensing deals outside the US so this domain had no place in any of our current plans."
