Bodog Lifeless - Sinking Fast
August 26th, 2008
BodogLife.com (formerly Bodog.com), the rags-to-riches-to-rags story is playing out because of DoJ troubles with payment proccessing.
Forbes.com reported last month that the US Government seized $24 million from bank accounts linked to Bodog (BodogLife.com). And while Bodog was not the only online gambling firm with monies tied to Zip Payments - the subject of a U.S. attorney’s office out of Baltimore - the company has not had the same degree of success setting up new processing means compared to their counterparts. Of greater concern are the rumors that have been circulating that Bodog also set up shell corporations in the state of Nevada to help facilitate transfers of funds, though Gambling911.com has not yet been able to confirm these stories.
The court papers detail an elaborate international structure put together to allow Bodog to collect money and write checks to winning gamblers in the U.S. One affidavit by Randall S. Carrow, a special agent with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division, said that $248 million involving entities linked to Bodog was processed through Wachovia Bank, from which $11 million of the $24 million was seized.
According to Carrow’s detailed sworn statements, the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division started looking at Bodog in 2003 and opened a formal probe in 2006, around the same time the US Government began severely cracking down on high profile online gambling companies the likes of BetonSports and Neteller, another payment solutions business that deals exclusively in online gambling.
This week, www.Gambling911.com learned that Bodog laid off nearly 300 employees with more terminations likely in the coming weeks. The company has been trying to break into the European market, however, they do not have a proper license to advertise in the United Kingdom. Bodog’s new Dublin, Ireland office is said to be so quiet you can hear a pin drop.
One source from within the company told us: “The situation is horrible. Nobody wants to process payments for us.”
Bodog’s inability to maintain a low profile has been at least partially to blame. I would say Arye has learned his lesson but probably now!