An online anti-gaming group is distributing a letter from the Federal Bureau of Investigation warning that criminals can use Internet gambling to launder money.
The efforts of the Washington, D.C., Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling, a grassroots organization funded by Las Vegas Sands Corp. Sheldon Adelson, are part of the organization's overall effort to reinstate a federal ban on Internet gaming.
Meanwhile, opponents of online gambling are pushing for a draft bill to overturn the U.S. Justice Department's 2011 decision to overturn the Federal Front Act, allowing states to adopt Internet gaming. First unveiled by poker blogger Marco Valerio, the three-page bill has been in Congress since December, but has yet to attract sponsors.
Congressional sources said the bill came from the Adelson Group. The bill contains a two-year FBI investigation into various Internet game issues, including money laundering, fraud, terrorist financing, cybercrime, and underage gambling.
Last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released a letter to the late Congressman Bill Young in September 2013, who asked the FBI if Internet game technology could be used in criminal activities. Congressman Young died last October. 바카라사이트
J. Britt Johnson, the FBI's deputy director of criminal investigation, wrote that online casinos are "vulnerable to various criminal schemes." Johnson cited several examples, including how online players can launder their money through internet poker games.
Former New York Gov. George Pataki, one of three former elected officials Adelson hired to serve as co-chair of the coalition, said in a statement that the FBI's letter was "part of growing evidence" of the dangers of internet gambling.
"The FBI has certainly said that terrorist groups and criminal gangs can use sophisticated technology to move undetected money, hide their physical locations, and entangle unwitting online players," Pataki said.
The FBI also warned that money launderers are "looking for innovative ways to make use of any media rich in resources and available for illicit money laundering."
Geoff Freeman, president of the American Gaming Association, said that aggressive regulation of online gaming is the best way to crack down on money laundering.
Freeman said, "The online game ban is a free ticket for shady foreign companies and criminals to use the United States."
Johnson wrote that U.S. banks, "physical casinos" and other well-regulated institutions could be "unconsciously conduits for money laundering."
Jennifer Shasky Calvery, director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the Treasury Department (FinCEN), warned in a speech to the Global Game Expo in September that the casino industry should be wary of protecting itself from money laundering.
"All financial institutions, including casinos, should be concerned about their reputation," she said, adding, "Integrity goes a long way."