The grueling year long battle between James Giordano and U.S. officials has finally come to an end. Early this month, the 55 year old resident of Pinecrest, Florida pleaded to the charges of illegal gambling associated with a sports betting ring operated in offshore jurisdictions. While Giordano stressed that none of his employees ever accepted wagers on America soil, simply allowing U.S. residents to gamble on internet sites appears to be all the ammunition authorities needed to take legal action.
Ironically, the United States government permits wagering on slots, poker, horse and dogs across the South Florida area, which is unfortunate for offshore gambling mavens the likes of Giordano. It also interesting to note that the crackdown comes in light of the 2007 Nevada Legislature that legalized online gambling within state borders. Utterly disgusted, Giordano describes the entire ordeal as “hypocritical.”
No stranger to the law, Giordano has previously been in hot water for running sportsbooks in the state of New York. In the late 1990s, the crafty offshore gaming mogul decided that he could evade legal ramifications by setting up shop with his own internet gambling operation on St. Maarten, a jurisdiction that openly allows sports wagering. Giordano was able to run a legit gambling operation under a license provided the Netherlands government – or so he thought.
Destined to claim his stake in the online gambling realm, Giordano brought renowned maverick Al Goldstein onboard to help promote the operation and from there, the popular gambling site PlayWithAl.com was born. Raking in tens of thousands of dollars every week, Giordano purchased a lavish mansion in Florida while maintain gaming servers in St. Maartens and expanding his operation to the jurisdiction of Costa Rica. Despite the rapid success, U.S. lawmakers set a precedent with Mr. Giordano as his company represents the first offshore online gambling operation to be accused of criminal activity in the U.S., without actually having any operative base on U.S. soil.
According to the plea agreement, Giordano will receive a five-month sentence the infamous Riker’s Island in addition to a hefty fine of a whopping $1 million. This is one top of an estimated $1 million that had been seized by authorities. Initially, authorities claimed that the sports betting website had booked more than $3.3 billion in wagers in just over two years, a figure Giordano says is simply ridiculous. This leads some to believe that the plea and relatively light sentence shows federal officials’ urgency to quickly close out a weak case.
Giordano reports that all of his business was conducted in a legitimate manner, citing that all his taxes were paid and that he violated no laws. However, he is concerned that the illegal and unethical practices conducted by prosecutors could eventually result in a much stiffer sentence.
As for making a return to the online gambling business, Giordano says that he is done and looking for another line of work.
