DOLLAROPOKER BUSTED IN A HUGE ONLINE GAMBLING SCANDAL LINKED TO THE ITALIAN MOB
An illegal gambling ring allegedly tied with the Italian Mafia has been exposed on Wednesday by the Italian police authorities. Eleven suspects were arrested under accusations of operating a vast network with over 12,000 gambling terminals scattered through Italian cafes, bars and gambling halls. Online poker room DollaroPoker.net is also reported to be involved.
The police action involved arresting Luigi Tancredi (known also as the King of Slots) and seizing 10 million Euro in assets from the arrested group which is believed to have handled more than 11 million Euros in bets each day. Tancredi is accused of having ties with the infamous Naples based Camorra clan and being an “indispensable link between organized crime and the world of information technology.”
Nicola Femia, an alleged boss of the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta organized crime syndicate and a former associate of Tancredi was also arrested. Both men were previously charged (and later acquitted by the court in Bologna) with running 33 illegal online gambling websites including the already mentioned DollaroPoker.
It is believed that the Mafia controlled the terminals that provided access to online poker site DollaroPoker.net (and possibly others). The wiretapping records made by the Italian authorities were commented by the Italian Finance Police Colonel Alessandro Cavalli who said that high ranking Mob figures were heard saying the business was “more profitable than drug-trafficking.”
The website that is largely unknown outside of Italy is used by many Italian players in cafes and clubs. It uses an operating model where the deposits and withdrawals are run by agents (similar to affiliates) who bypass player registration and collect a considerable share of generated revenue.
The site has also been accused of restricting winning accounts by meddling with their funds (or even deleting winning accounts) and taking advantage of weak players. Dollaro is based in Romania while its servers are located in Tampa, Florida.
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