The Israel Police National Economic Crimes Unit and the online gambling taskforce have darkened the screens of online betting site betbet.us (formerly bet555.net), which generated NIS 340 million revenue since May 2007.
This morning, a force of more than 300 police offices and investigators from the Jerusalem and Southern District Assessors Offices raided the homes of 36 suspects nationwide. Scores of gamblers have been summoned for questioning, and property worth tens of millions of shekels has been seized.
The owners and partners in the website, its builder and technical support team, gambling agents, and organizers of groups, as well as hundreds of gamblers were involved in the scheme. The suspects will be brought to the Tel Aviv Magistrates Court for extension of remand. The Prosecutors Office will examine whether there is sufficient evidence to indict the heads of the gang for tax crimes as well.
In early 2008, intelligence was obtained that the chief suspect, a 38-year old resident of Or Yehuda was operating an online gambling site, bet555.net. The investigation found that the site had a turnover of hundreds of millions of shekels during the two and a half years that it was in operation. Profits rose from an initial 3% of turnover to more than 5%, amounting to millions of shekels. 70 million transactions were made on the website between April 2007 and June 2009, including both entering the website and placing of bets.
The police said that online gambling is one of the main activities of organized crime gangs in Israel. It also leads to other serious crimes, including extortion, violence, money laundering, tax evasion, and harming the public coffers.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 16, 2009
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