A.M. Costa Rica
The face of Costa Rican Internet gambling has changed from retail to wholesale.
In addition to accepting bets from individuals, mostly from the United States, some of the the bookmaking organizations here are targeting illegal gambling operations with overtures and advertising in order to serve as their offshore betting center.
The concept is attractive to illegal gamblers in the United States because sportsbooks and betting operations here are immune from U.S. law enforcement, although individual U.S. citizens are not.
The problem is that the bulk of the U.S. bookmaking operations are mob-related and frequently associated with loansharking operations that extort three digit interest from hapless gamblers.
The new nature of the gambling business here became public with the May arrests of 36 persons associated with the Bonanno crime family in Queens, N.Y.
The office of Queens County, N.Y., District Attorney Robert A. Brown said:
“The indictment also alleges that the ring used a non-traditional `wire room` in the form of an off-shore, Internet-based gambling service used by bettors and runners to actually place their wagers. It is alleged that the ring used the off-shore wire room to maintain numerous runners` and bettors` gambling accounts through the Internet Web site in an effort to evade law enforcement detection through traditional methods.”
In other words the North American bookmaking operation remains responsible for paying gambling winners and also collects the major part of the losing bets. The Costa Rican betting operations take a commission and are guaranteed income no matter the result of a bet.
A quick check of sportsbook advertising in The Tico Times shows the change in appeal. For example, BettorsNet.com in its ad this week addresses bookmakers and says “I can show you how to make more $$$, work less and decrease legal exposure.”
WWW.offshoremovers.com makes a direct appeal to “bookmakers . . . agents . . . runners. . . “ So does bookoffshore.com, whose ad asks “Are you a bookmaker?”
These companies are not seeking customers in Costa Rica but in the United states where most private bookmaking is illegal.
The problem with gambling control centers or wire rooms located in the United Sates is that they are vulnerable to police raids. In the May arrests, law officers raided wire rooms at 136-72 72nd Ave. in Kew Gardens Hills and at 147-19 Jewel Ave. in Flushing. But the Costa Rican operation was untouched.
Said District Attorney Brown`s office:
“Law enforcement crackdowns on traditional mob-run wire rooms have led to the use by illegal gambling rings of off-shore gambling Web sites where action is available around the clock. Bettors can click on an off-shore gambling Web site over the Internet and be assigned individual login codes and passwords. Their wagers and win-loss amounts are recorded in `sub-accounts` maintained in `runner`s` and `agent`s` accounts.
“These gambling websites typically store their information on computer servers outside the United States –- some in Costa Rica and Curacao –- and "bounce" their data through a series of server nodes in efforts to evade law enforcement.”
The district attorney`s office said that the single bookmaking ring that was busted up in May was a $180 million a year operation and placed up to 2,000 bets a day.
According to the indictment, reputed Bonanno captain Anthony "Tony Green" Urso — identified as an unindicted co-conspirator — received a monthly tribute from the gambling operation in exchange for the protection of the Bonanno crime family, one of the five New York Mafia groups.
Then in the following month, Brown`s office announced the indictment of 12 individuals –- including reputed Bonanno crime family capo and acting consigliere Anthony Rabito, 71, and reputed soldier Salvatore Scudiero, 72, and 10 alleged mob associates –- on enterprise corruption and gambling charges involving the operation of a $10 million illegal gambling enterprise and also loan sharking.
The investigation included telephonic eavesdropping that intercepted thousands of illicit conversations, physical surveillance and intelligence information, said the district attorney`s office. Although not specifically stated, the loansharking and gambling operation clearly were linked to the earlier arrests, which also relied on telephone eavesdropping. The ring is accused of extorting 165 percent interest from borrowers and using physical violence to collect debts.
Top Costa Rican law enforcement officials expressed surprise at the change in the nature of the local gambling operations. They were unaware of the New York arrests. However, they expressed concern about possible mafia infiltration here. Several persons with mob affiliations have been arrested here. Even more have visited.
Even as early as 2002 law enforcement officials were talking about mob links to Costa Rica. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York announced the arrests in December 2002 of 27 alleged mobsters, and said that the investigation has turned up a gambling link to Costa Rica in which employees in the United States were channeling bets to Costa Rica via telephones. Little came of those allegations.
The alleged Mafia members arrested then in New York mostly were members of the Luchese crime family. Earlier the same year in May the personal bookmaker of the Gambino family crime boss John Gotti, Dominick Curra, was arrested here, and he was believed to have maintained some kind of betting operation in the La Sabana Oficentro where he was arrested.
The sportsbooks here, of course, are where many North American young people support their stay in Costa Rica. Some of them are working illegally under tourist visas.
