Two Convicted in Internet Gambling Case

A Miami couple who had been extradited to New York last November, appeared in court on Friday to face Felony charges stemming from an illegal internet gambling operation. The defendants entered guilty pleas to the felony charges and will be sentenced for the crime next month. More than two dozen others have also been indicted, including a professional poker player and a scout for the Washington Nationals Major League Baseball team.

Arrests were made last November following a two-year investigation into an internet gambling ring that was said to have taken more than $1.4 Billion in bets each year. The illegal gambling operation, which rivaled most Las Vegas casinos, utilized a network of illegal bookies in New York who logged into offshore gambling servers to process wagers for tens of thousands of gamblers.

The gambling operation centered around the internet web site playwithal.com, which linked to offshore servers that hosted software for managing sports betting accounts. Each of the illegal bookies in New York served as Agents of the system, and used the playwithal.com web site to process wagers for the people who placed sports bets with them. The gambling web site was said to have been organized and managed by professional poker player, James Giordano, who has entered a plea of Not Guilty and is awaiting trial.

Police launched an investigation into the gambling ring in 2005 after receiving a tip from a separate probe into organized crime in New York. During the course of the investigation, Giordano's computer was hacked by the FBI, who used the access to conduct electronic surveillance on the illegal gambling ring.

A total of 27 people were later arrested in November 2006. One of these was Frank Falzarano, a 52 year-old resident of Long Island, New York. Falzarano works as a scout for the Washington Nationals Major League Baseball team, and previously worked as a scout for the San Francisco Giants, giving an extra twist to the sports betting scandal. Falzarano was alleged to be the top earner in a network of more than 2,000 bookies who used the internet sports gambling web site.