12/29/03 3:00 pm EST

Year 2004 Looks Challenging for Offshore Bookmakers

Christopher Costigan, Sports911.com

Not only has it been a less-than-rewarding football season for the offshore sportsbooks (not to mention an equally frustrating start to the basketball season), now a number of these shops have to worry about likely indictments to being handed down in the coming months.

Currently there are law enforcement agents gambling into a number of shops, all of which offer credit betting.  Sports911 has even learned that some of these agents are being tagged as "wise guys".

"These guys are not going to learn," a source told Sports911. 

Books that deal in "credit" will often utilize intermediaries (known also as "agents") who exchange money on United States soil, a definite "no no" where law enforcement is concerned. 

"Money laundering activity in this post-9/11 era is a serious crime so some of these guys may be looking at several years behind bars," our source advised. 

Forget the hype associated with political figures and their attempts at trying to stifle online gambling through proposed bills that will never get passed.  Law enforcement agencies are dealing with the here and now, which requires them to go after suspected money launderers and those associated with illicit crime figures.

While it is not known which sports book owners are likely to be pinched in the coming months, one offshore book owner might be able to breathe a sigh of relief.  Sports911 has received strong indications that Hollywood Sports will be bypassed in this most recent round of investigations. 

Sports911.com does not condone the use of agents and money transactions taking place on U.S. soil. 

As if that were not enough to worry about, players are still mighty antsy about this less than stellar football season and the consequences come post-Super Bowl when most customers withdraw their money en masse.

Already a handful of shops have shut down even prior to the Christmas season (Gamblers Avenue, being taken over by Royal Sports and Blue Marlin disappearing into the night with players funds). 

Some sportsbooks, like Blue Grass continue to operate on shaky ground, though they continue to behave as if nothing is wrong.  Blue Grass, specifically, owes one offshore bookmaker $600,000 and at least one New York based player a significant amount in the tens and thousands, which they reportedly stopped paying. 

The latest in a line of struggling bookmakers appears to be Bowman's Sports, the long established British wagering company with offices in Douglas, on the Isle of Man and a call center off the coast of Africa on an island that once was home to the now extinct Dodo Bird, Mauritius. 

Sports911.com received this email from a long time website owner just the other day:

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Needless-to-say, Sports Interaction, is sitting in the dog house here and elsewhere, but Bowman's did come as a bit of a surprise (though nothing truly seems all too surprising this season). 

Gary Bowman had tried unsuccessfully to sell his fledgling company and almost made it happen in late 2000 with the announced sale to a Malta-based group, FireStake.  The later corporation went out in a puff of smoke thicker than that you'd find in one of Gary's weed (ahem, we mean cigar shops).  Firestake dissolved a month after announcing its purchase of Bowman's.  The sportsbook remained on its own once again. 

Industry insiders insist that Bowman's has turned things around with their current bookmaker, a well known figure from the Vegas circuit. 

"Bowmans may have the best hold percentage of any book that deals north American sports," chimed in one gentleman that emailed us and seems to know quite a bit about this operation. "I doubt there is a book that has held a higher percentage over the last three years."

That may be true, but it doesn't change the fact that three weeks is entirely too long a time to be waiting for a withdrawal.  It should be noted that other players have received payments, mostly via NETeller, within a very short period of time.

From now until Super Bowl, players may need to just hold their breath.  It is going to be a challenging time ahead as more sportsbooks are expected to unceremoniously close their doors. 

Sports911.com urges its readers to conduct prior due diligence when signing up with a sportsbook and, as usual, it is suggested you contact us in order to get a second opinion (or a first opinion, whatever the case may be).