Create An Ad For An Online Gambling Company? Face Jail Time!

from the is-that-even-illegal? dept

The US gov't has long had an odd fascination with stopping online gambling (except for horse racing -- which politicians engage in -- and state lotteries, for obvious reasons). Sometimes, this obsession reaches bizarre levels, such as the claim a few years back that it wasn't just illegal to run an online gambling operation, but that it was illegal to help advertise one. Most have pointed out that this has little actual legal basis, and is likely a violation of free speech rights -- but that hasn't stopped the government from using such threats.

Two years ago, the feds charged some ad execs with a whole bunch of crimes simply because they had the company BetOnSports as a client. BetOnSports, of course, was completely legal outside the US, but that didn't stop the US from claiming otherwise (even arresting BetOnSports' CEO as he was traveling through the US in a completely separate action from the lawsuit in this post). Even if it turns out that BetOnSports is somehow illegal, it makes no sense to drag in execs from a totally different company that only created promotional campaigns for BetOnSports. That hardly seems to deserve getting charged criminally.

But, when the gov't wants to put you down, it finds a way. The three ad execs have now all plead guilty in the case. Even though they had nothing to do with running the gambling site, they agreed to a plea bargain to avoid a lengthy and costly trial that could have resulted in a lot of jail time. It's not clear yet what the sentences will be in this case, as that will be announced in October, but at least some of the execs may get off without jail time. That's good, but it still remains ridiculous that they had to go through this two year ordeal just because they created promotions for the company.

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