今天的新闻：美国司法部要求已经命令世界上最大的银行、会计和法律部门上缴所有与网上赌博公司之间的email、电话记录和文件记录，这些东西将作为调查美国境内非法网上赌博的证据之一。
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如果这是真的，事情就闹大了。美国玩家彻底断路了。
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/ b' b' n8 a2 m4 G对国人是没有什么影响的，大家不要惊慌。
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The Sunday Times
  e& Z, u+ |2 }9 j5 ]January 21, 2007  p" w& _+ s# l% z% ~
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US gaming probe rocks top banks& B6 R1 X) c/ _1 L3 ^* l
Jenny Davey
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1 g( ~  R6 B+ w8 ETHE US Department of Justice has ordered the world’s biggest investment banks, accountants and law firms to hand over all e-mails, telephone records and papers connected with internet gaming firms as part of an investigation into illegal online gambling in America.
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$ g2 s0 l% v! Y  |, GHSBC, Dresdner Kleinwort, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank are known to be among the banks that have been issued with subpoenas — official requests for information — as part of a worldwide hunt to build a case against those who benefited from illegal online gambling.
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Britain has been the fundraising centre for many internet gambling companies, with a number of international operators listing their shares in London.9 U0 F. |0 u4 I+ s0 V0 @

8 ~4 l- j( V7 ^0 v: S7 r$ R( T' ^Fortunes were made by the founders of internet gaming stocks, including Party Gaming, 888.com and Betonsports.com, and advisers pocketed huge fees.
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The Department of Justice first issued subpoenas in October, only days after George Bush sounded the death knell for America’s $6 billion (£3.2 billion) internet gambling industry by signing legislation banning all related transactions. But until now the investigation has been kept secret.
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) b6 _" i% p; R& h, ~$ rAccording to City sources, the subpoenas have continued to arrive over the past few weeks.7 E: a- l- Q  B

9 t6 `# `2 G: `& R; NIt is thought that some investors in online gambling companies, including Party Gaming and 888.com, have also been hit with requests for information.
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  Q' M5 ]  I, m! {One source said: “To say the situation is sensitive is the understatement of the decade. The problem is, even if you know you have done nothing wrong, you have no powers of resistance.”7 G# L9 h( C) s- @; L# p
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He added: “You can quickly go from being a bystander to a target, so even if you are bomb- proof, you have to assume you are subject to hostility.”, ]/ Y# ?( M/ v/ U) X  P
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The source went on: “The Department of Justice has taken a shotgun, not a rifle approach in relation to lots of gaming companies and has just asked everyone to hand over all the information they have.”
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4 ^- f/ r, W8 |The request could force banks and other advisers or former advisers to the gambling companies to hand over hundreds of thousands of e-mails and files to American investigators.
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7 S. s2 s. Z& |' M/ A+ c  LAnother City source familiar with the circumstances said: “There is no doubt at all that this situation is escalating. This has definitely got legs.”( T% r( {1 J% U+ Q

5 L3 N9 k# @' q$ I' ?/ SAnother source described it as one of the biggest “fishing expeditions” ever undertaken by the Department of Justice.
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Vast riches were made by the founders of internet gambling companies, including Party Gaming and 888.com. Party Gaming floated with a value of £5 billion in the summer of 2005, propelling it straight into the FTSE 100 index ahead of British household names such as British Airways and ICI. Its four founder shareholders — Anurag Dikshit, Vikrant Bhargava, Ruth Parasol and her husband, Russ DeLeon — took out £797m and valued their remaining shares at about £ 3.3 billion. Meanwhile, 888.com, which floated in September 2005 valued at £590m, created another batch of dotcom millionaires, this time among the company’s Israeli founders. Avi and Aharon Shaked received more than £10m from selling a quarter of their 70% stake., o& A: C5 m2 q  V: O& d" I- m

* i; [: n2 T3 A6 Y' n) s  iThe probe by the Department of Justice will spark outrage in Britain, coming so soon after the extradition of the so-called NatWest Three to America.
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“UK plc should be really worried about yet another encroachment of American investigators on to British territory. The City is clearly under threat,” said one British businessman who asked not to be named.
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The subpoenas do not reveal whom the Department of Justice is targeting. But some believe the ultimate goal is to find information incriminating the founders of the online gambling firms.
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6 O/ C: S6 N/ W2 dThe inquiry vindicates the City professionals who refused to act for internet gambling firms because of the uncertainty about its legality in America. Banks that have been subpoenaed have lined up lawyers to act for them.' B6 R* U: r% _8 Q' V! I! c* ^

$ w5 Q4 L9 u# r* w, gNone of the banks involved would comment on the subpoenas. The Department of Justice also said that its policy was not to comment about ongoing investigations.
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HSBC advised 888.com, one of the most high-profile internet gambling companies, on its flotation. Credit Suisse advised the original shareholders of 888.com on their strategic options before the flotation. Deutsche is co-broker to Party Gaming, while Dresdner advised on its public listing.; D' X8 V, ^9 j1 X2 U  d
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http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8209-2557716,00.html

Four Wall Street Firms Are Subpoenaed on Online Gambling
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January 22, 2007 from the NY TIMES2 U+ o- a) X+ x5 w" K+ w4 n
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Four Wall Street Firms Are Subpoenaed on Online Gambling
' x1 u' ^8 u* _8 dBy ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and STEPHANIE SAUL
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# m# D, J+ A1 P% K5 ]The Justice Department has issued subpoenas to at least four Wall Street investment banks as part of a widening investigation into the multibillion-dollar online gambling industry, according to people briefed on the investigation." I0 ]/ U2 t( G. P; K
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The subpoenas were issued to firms that had underwritten the initial public offerings of some of the most popular online gambling sites that operate abroad. The banks involved in the inquiry include HSBC, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Kleinwort, these people said.
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While online gaming sites like PartyGaming and 888 Holdings operate from Gibraltar and their initial public offerings were held on the London Stock Exchange, companies that do business with them and have large bases in United States have come under scrutiny by regulators in Washington./ D# J  W: r: K  C

# X2 A) l7 B; Z" Q5 LNone of the biggest United States banks like Goldman Sachs or Citigroup underwrote the initial public offerings in London, in part because of the legal ambiguity of the sites; they are illegal in the United States, but still accessible to residents./ E6 l% q# E: p

2 Q: l& K( e  Y" c3 \9 u6 \6 q: [The subpoenas, earlier reported by The Sunday Times of London, appeared to be part of an indirect but aggressive and far-reaching attack by federal prosecutors on the Internet gambling industry just two weeks before one of its biggest days of the year, the Super Bowl.% f. i4 e1 V  B7 A" G2 j) q# H
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Unable to go directly after the casinos, which are based overseas, they have sought to prosecute the operations’ American partners, marketing arms and now, possibly, investors.+ W! @" H: m' S4 j

  n2 O( b' v' ?! G/ z5 g* fThe prosecutors may be emboldened by a law signed by President Bush last October that explicitly defined the illegality of running an Internet casino. Even before that law, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, was adopted, the government said that Internet gambling was illegal under a 1961 provision.+ b! ~/ }: g0 J. T, U1 S9 T( g! z

* w" L) C' [1 _5 N. Y5 XThese offshore casinos, typically based in Costa Rica or Antigua, allow American bettors to use their home and office computers to place wagers on a range of contests.
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Millions of Americans participate; more than half of all bets placed to major offshore casinos are from residents of the United States.
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" I" n: N6 p- \The prosecutors’ efforts have already taken a toll in the last two years on offshore casinos, most notably with the arrest last year of David Carruthers, the chief executive of an Internet sports book, BetonSports. The company is based in Britain and has operations in Costa Rica, but Mr. Carruthers was detained at the Dallas airport while traveling through the United States.
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! o( u+ d; }* t9 s% F3 }The arrest led to BetonSports’ decision to stop taking bets from the United States, crippling its business.6 u1 z, R. i( M& \/ B

& B0 L+ e1 b2 f- {, g: SSeveral weeks later, agents of the Port Authority of New York arrested Peter Dicks, the chairman of Sport-ingbet, which offers online sports betting and, like Mr. Carruthers’s company, trades on the London Stock Exchange. Mr. Dicks was arrested at Kennedy Airport.
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6 |( H9 @1 H3 U+ D+ g. DLast week, a British online money transfer business, Neteller, said it would cease handling gambling transactions from United States customers because of regulatory uncertainty.( Y- F  n+ X# e- I

7 A7 t: [; w5 N“It appears that the Department of Justice is waging a war of intimidation against Internet gambling,” said I. Nelson Rose, a professor of law at Whittier Law School in Costa Mesa, Calif., who is an expert on Internet gambling law.+ \* y; E8 f0 y2 Y+ [9 E4 v
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Another lawyer, Lawrence G. Walters of Altamonte Springs, Fla., said the development was disconcerting because the prevailing wisdom had been that investment in a company that is legal and licensed in its jurisdiction was not grounds for prosecution.
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“It would be the first time that that kind of liability has been imposed,” Mr. Walters said.
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But he cautioned that the subpoenas could be part of a government fact-finding effort and might not signal a plan to prosecute banks.