On October 1, 2015, the results of a Las Vegas illegal gambling case drew to a close. A betting expert received 18 months of jail time, to be spent in a federal prison, for operating an illegal gambling venture. This same person was also sentenced for hiding his earnings from the IRS. Tony Chau, age 32 and a Vietnamese immigrant marketed online wagering to clients around the USA. He has been ordered to pay over $500,000 to the IRS and forefeit over $1.4 million to the US government.
US District Judge Richard Boulware heard the case and provided the sentencing. Chau will need to fulfill 200 hours of community service after his stay in prison. The honorable judge also stated Chau could not be involved in any gambling ventures for three years, which is also his parole period.
Tony Chau must surrender by November 30, 2015 and enter prison. According to the court reporters, Chau did apologize for his actions and admitted to losing everything.
Chau’s statement to the judge was, “Your honor, I stand before you today a broken man.”
Boulware stated he felt Chau was “thoughtful and industrious” and hoped Chau would learn from this mistake and put his energy into the correct side of the law once released from prison.
Chau’s website was sportsbettingchamp.com. It is closed. When the site was operational, there was alleged help from sports books in Panama and Costa Rica. These two companies do not have Nevada operating licenses. The information was provided to federal prosecutors by Chau when he made a plea agreement in May.
The agreement was for him to plead guilty to three charges: money laundering, operating an illegal gambling business, and making false tax return statements.
Chau admitted to referring customers to the offshore sports books when he sold his customers his wagering system. Between 2008 and 2011, Chau did not report $1.4 million in earnings from the sports books.