Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: The FBI launches an initiative to counter what it considers an emerging threat—the use of illegal Internet sports books. These sports books are online websites, usually hosted on offshore servers, where users can place bets on a credit-based system. The Italian mafia and Asian crime groups mostly facilitate these operations…

Nicholas Cheviron: We’re seeing that organized crime is getting more and more involved in this than they even historically have been in the past.

Halpern: That was Supervisory Special Agent Nicholas Cheviron. The Internet Sports Books Initiative enhances efforts to disrupt and dismantle the criminal enterprises through prosecution and forfeiture. The FBI works with its local, state, federal, and international partners to achieve this.

Cheviron: The FBI is focused on this as a problem and providing training and guidance on how to combat these enterprises.

Halpern: Customers of this form of gambling help finance organized crime and…

Cheviron: They’re opening themselves up to violence and any sort of extortions that organized crime may commit upon them.

Halpern: Report this crime and internet sports books websites to the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.

I'm Mollie Halpern of the Bureau with FBI, This Week.