Arizona's Gambling Battle: 4

The Maricopa County Sheriff Office’s ongoing investigation on illegal online casino activity started with detectives being authorized to place wiretaps on the phones of the persons of interest. The detectives involved then received search warrants towards this investigation in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. These search warrants and the information obtained lead to the arrests of over 30 people linked to these online casinos. Not to mention that the authorities were able to seize over $30 million worth of cars, money and even property. This was all possible under racketeering laws. One defendant even claimed that an agent that raided his home went as far as to take the wedding ring off his wife’s finger. The Sheriff’s Office maintains that their officers did not take anything with legitimate sentimental value.

This case has obviously seen its share of ups and downs, much like a players game at online casinos. One of the downs is that Arizona’s Attorney General removed himself off the investigation due to an impending investigation on himself. Terry Goddard, the Attorney General for Arizona was at the time being investigated for conduct in an unrelated case against the former state Treasurer. The online casino ring case was then sent to another county, Pima County Attorney’s Office. That seemed like it would be the end of troubles for this case but it was not. Unfortunately the chief deputy for this case from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, David Henderschott, told the officers in the Pima County that he would not cooperate with their investigation. So he got his wish and the case was brought back to Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.

In a case that seems to have no end about a topic that no one can agree on, the online casino cases that were now officially back in Maricopa County. Even though they were back where the charges originated for the online casinos, the Sheriff’s Office in Maricopa County was fined by the Pima County court for not turning over the public records in the case fast enough. All in all, the defendants in this case were charged with 250 crimes. The 35 people involved were charged with crimes such as illegal use of wire or electronic communication, benefiting from gambling, promotion of gambling, racketeering, betting and wagering, money laundering, and to top it all off extortion.