Pinnacle Sports Pulls Out Of US Market
Pinnacle Sports would have been the least likely of the internet gambling firms to pull out of the US market. Then again, maybe not.
It’s no secret that nearly every professional sports bettor placed his or her bets at Pinnacle Sports over the years. Reduced juice allowed for betting $104 to win $100 on favorites as opposed to the standard $110 to win $100. For the savvy sports bettor who had no problem laying down thousands on a game, this amounted to thousands of dollars in savings over the course of a year’s time.
The problem with Pinnacle Sports, however, is that many of their top players (some of whom acted as agents) have been getting nabbed over the past few years as part of local US and state prosecutions.
Three years ago, a major customer of the sports book claimed in wire taps to be a part-owner in Pinnacle Sports.
“Pinnacle Sports was regularly brought up during these conversations,” a source told Gambling911.com at the time.
While the individual in question - who was in reality a High School principal - proved to have no ownership stakes in Pinnacle Sports, the bookmaker’s name had already been thrown out there as a result of the wiretaps.
“With so many people nabbed in recent localized gambling busts doing business with (offshore) sportsbooks, it is only a matter of time before they (law enforcement) begin to connect the dots,” our source said.
In recent weeks, some online gambling operators have fled Costa Rica in the middle of the night.
“The Operations Manager of one sportsbook took a US Airways flight to Phoenix under an assumed name over the holidays,” our source disclosed.
Unfounded rumors suggested that FBI agents were descending upon Costa Rica to nab certain sportsbook owners.
“Some of these guys have such huge egos that they truly believe the BS that is fed to them,” our source said.
One outlandish rumor last week even had the PokerStars office in Costa Rica under lockdown. Before Gambling911.com could even investigate, a follow up call confirmed this was just a false alarm. Most legal experts - including legal counsel for PokerStars - believe that online poker, as a game of skill, is excluded from recent legislation.
The US Justice Department has always been aggressive in going after those individuals believed to be engaging in acts of money laundering and tax evasion. Operating an “offshore sportsbook” onshore in the United States (as some offshore entities do via agents) quite often gets painted with the same brush as the offenses above primarily due to the rather large exchanges of monies.
“These investigations sometimes take up to three years - witness BetonSports - so if you were doing something the Justice Department or local law enforcement agencies deemed to be ‘bad’ three years ago, it really makes no difference if you leave the US market now.”
Already, Pinnacle competitors are contemplating ways to capitalize on their departure similar to how PokerStars gained its extraordinary market share following PartyPoker’s bowing out of the US market.
Pinnacle Sports has the ability to thrive in the European and Asian market place, unlike most of its US focused counterparts, though it is widely estimated that nearly 60% of its customer base will be wiped out as a result of this decision.
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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com
