Mr. Jay Cohen

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  blog.igamingnews.com/ignblog/2008/12/index.html - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 12/1/2008    Last Visited: 3/31/2009  

  Thinking about the hearing, one has a new found admiration for Jay Cohen, founder of World Sports Exchange. (The first federal Internet gambling case had been filed in 1998.) Here's a guy who believed in his cause, fought the DOJ charges, refused to settle and went to court and trial (and ultimately jail) fighting for his beliefs. This all happened eight years ago in the exact same building, the lower Manhattan Moynihan Federal Courthouse.

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  www.casinoplayer.com/archive/0005cp/html/Net%20Watch.ht - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/1/2000    Last Visited: 4/23/2008  

  Industry Calls Jay Cohen'sConviction Unfair
  
  Last month, I told you about a landmark trial that was taking place in New York regarding Jay Cohen of the World Sports Exchange online gambling site (www.wsex.com).The charges against Cohen included six counts of using wire communication to transmit bets and wagers and one count of conspiracy to use wire facilities to transmit bets.According to Cohen, his site did not violate the Wire Act (a law passed in the '60s to control illegal betting using phone lines) because the wagering took place in Antigua, where it's legal.
  
  After a week-long trial that many called one-sided, Cohen was convicted for violating the 1961 Wire Act.Talking about the case and the verdict, Sue Schneider, chairman of the Interactive Gaming Council, stated: "We are disappointed that the Justice Department decided to pursue this case, even though Jay Cohen was operating a licensed and regulated gaming establishment and causing harm to no one.
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  Not only was Mr. Cohen precluded from offering a substantive defense, the judge in the case would not even let the jury have a complete or accurate copy of the Wire Act upon which to base their decision.
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  The judge obliged, but had the provision of section 1084, which contained a legal defense for Cohen, removed as if it didn't exist.In addition, the jury wasn't even told that parts of the statute had been removed.Last month, I mentioned that if Cohen were to be acquitted, the pressure for a ban on Internet gambling,the
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  In early March, and just a week after the landmark conviction of offshore operator Jay Cohen, the Justice Department suggested that instead of passing a separate law (the Kyl Bill), the government should look to update the 40-year-old Wire Act.

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  www.allaboutfashiondesigning.com/Fashion-Designing-Game - [Cached Version]
  Last Visited: 3/9/2007  

  Red Herring, CA - 16 hours ago... Jay Cohen, the former chief executive of World Sports Exchange (WSEX), is still the only executive of a legal and regulated online gambling firm to be ...

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  www.gamingfloor.com/archive/May_June_2002_Internet.html - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/1/2002    Last Visited: 1/5/2008  

  Jay Cohen is the first Internet offshore gaming operator to be found guilty by a US court.He returned voluntarily to the US from Antigua to face the charges.

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  www.safeandsecureig.org/news/news_articles/08-12-01_Was - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/12/2001    Last Visited: 5/15/2009  

  One of the first such cases was brought against Jay Cohen, 27, a former options trader who in 1996 opened an online sports book in Antigua called World Sports Exchange. Within a year, the Web site was receiving thousands of bets from U.S. customers. Cohen and a partner were prominently featured in a Wall Street Journal article.
  
  But by May 1997, the story had soured. That month, Cohen received a letter from the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, which was representing the NFL and other professional sports leagues, threatening him with a lawsuit if he didn't remove links to the leagues' Web sites and stop accepting bets from U.S. customers, according to an account Cohen published online in 2002.
  
  Cohen was indicted the following year.
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  Cohen was convinced that the Wire Act didn't apply to the Internet, and he returned to the United States to fight the charges. He was convicted and sentenced to 21 months in a federal prison camp located in the shadows of the Las Vegas Strip and its multibillion-dollar casinos.

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  www.caribupdate.com/DATELINE%20ANTIGUA.htm - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 4/19/2001    Last Visited: 8/22/2001  

  The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed last year's conviction of Jay Cohen , co-owner of World Sports Exchange , based on the Caribbean island of Antigua.Cohen , who was sentenced to 21 months in prison and fined $5 , 000 , has remained on bail pending the outcome of the appeal.READ MORE.
  
  Wadadli jamming
  
  Posted Sunday July 29 , 2001
  
  ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA'S Carnival got started in earnest on Saturday with the launch of a series of activities which will culminate in 10 days.

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  www.world-lotteries.org/news/wla_news_1.php?news_id=262 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/1/2007    Last Visited: 3/29/2007  

  The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (the "Second Circuit") affirmed the judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (the "District Court") which held that Jay Cohen, the director of an offshore sports betting Website conspired to violate and violated the terms of 18 U.S.C. §1084 (Internet Gambling Law).Jay Cohen, a business located in Antigua accepted bets from United States citizens over the telephone as well as from bettors on the Internet.The Second Circuit held that Jay Cohen violated the provisions of 18 U.S.C. §1084 by means of the Internet and telephone to transmit calls and accept bets from bettors in New York, where gambling is illegal, to the World Sports Exchange in Antigua, where gambling is legal.
  
  18 U.S.C. §1084 (a) states that: "(a) Whoever being engaged in the business of betting or wagering knowingly uses a wire communication facility for the transmission in interstate or foreign commerce of bets or wagers or information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers on any sporting event or contest, or for the transmission of a wire communication which entitles the recipient to receive money or credit as a result of bets or wagers, or for information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."
  
  18 U.S.C. §1084 (b) provides, in part, that Section 1084 does not prohibit the transmission of "information assisting in the placing of bets or wagers on a sporting event or contest from a state or foreign country where betting on that sporting event or contest is legal into a state or foreign country in which such betting is legal."
  
  Jay Cohen, the Defendant, was the President and one of the owners of World Sports Exchange ("WSE"), an organization engaged in the business of offering "bookmaking" services on United States sporting events.
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  Due to Jay Cohen's active role in the activities set forth above, the District Court convicted him for breaching the substantive provisions of 18 U.S.C. §1084(a) which inter alia prohibit: (a) using a wire communication facility to transmit in interstate or foreign commerce betting or wagering activities aimed at United States residents; (b) engaging in wire communications that allow the recipient to receive money or credit by way of a bet or wager; and (c) providing information to assist in the placement of bets or wagers by United States residents.Jay Cohen appealed and raised several contentions in his appeal, all of which were denied by the Second Circuit.
  
  Among Jay Cohen's contentions was that his activities did not conflict with the provisions of the statute since he fell within the ambit of the safe harbor provision of 18 U.S.C. §1084 (b).He further argued that his conduct was protected by §1084 (b) since every instance of betting occurred in Antigua and that the only nexus between New York and Antigua, was the delivery of information that supported in the placement of a bet in Antigua.
  
  The issues were: (a) whether the District Court properly instructed the jury to disregard the safe-harbor provision contained in §1084(b); (b) whether the provisions of §1084 applied to Cohen's conduct; and (c) whether transmission included both the receipt of information and the transmission of such information, and whether the rule of lenity (i.e. that in construing an ambiguous criminal statute, the court should resolve the ambiguity in favor of the defendant) requires a reversal of Cohen's convictions.
  
  The Second Circuit held that defendant violated §1084 by using both the Internet and telephones to transmit calls from bettors in New York to the World Sports Exchange in Antigua.Cohen was sentenced to a term of 21 months in prison.
  
  The Second Circuit further held that Section §1084 (b) did not provide Cohen with a safe harbor since the information in issue was transmitted to and from New York, where gambling is illegal, and also since such information composed the actual bet itself, and not only the information that helped in the placement of a bet.It also specifically found that bettors sent wagers over both the Internet as well as via telephone lines.The Second Circuit also found that Cohen had the essential mens rea to commit the crime in question.

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  www.rgtonline.org/headline/interstitial.asp?nexturl=det - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/24/1999    Last Visited: 8/15/2000  

  Jay Cohen was one of 21 people charged in 1998 with violating the Wire Act.Here's what happened to the other 20.
  
  Australian Slot Machine Giant Recommended For Nevada License
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  Jay Cohen Sentenced to 21 Months in Prison- August 09, 2000, DATE : [ 08/09/2000 ]
  
  Cohen, the co-owner of World Sports Exchange and the first American convicted of Internet bookmaking, was sentenced this afternoon to 21 months and a $ 5, 000 fine.
  
  Philippine Government Mulls Ban on Internet Gambling

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  www.promotionlawblog.com/tp-060522105614/post-060718132 - [Cached Version]
  Last Visited: 9/30/2009  

  The arrest of Mr. Carruthers, who was on a layover between Costa Rica and Britain, is another example of how U.S. legislators, regulators and law enforcement officials are trying to exercise jurisdiction wherever possible to limit online gambling in the U.S., including by arresting and prosecuting executives of offsite Internet gambling sites when they come into the United States. (In an earlier case, Long Island native Jay Cohen, who headed an Antigua-based online bookmaking operation, was in 1998 and convicted in 2000.) Carruthers' arrest comes days after the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill which would criminalize payment processing in support of Internet gambling, which now goes to the Senate.
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  As was the case with both Carruthers and Cohen, while their companies were taking illegal bets from U.S. citizens, they were doing so from outside U.S. borders in countries where the businesses themselves were legal.

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  www.majorwager.com/forums/mess-hall/168903-fast-company - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 6/29/2008    Last Visited: 6/30/2008  

  The first major conviction was of Jay Cohen, of Antigua-based World Sports Exchange, in 2000.

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