Legal Online Gambling in Canada Won’t Save Douglas Rennick

Canadian gambling laws are pretty lenient and seem to be getting steadily more tolerant as the nation’s government realizes the generous nest egg that it’s been sitting on. Most of the revenue that can be collected comes through internet gambling in Canada. 

Casino style games are popular as well, but it seems like online poker in Canada has really been taking off. There are many companies which offer poker services to Canada and the rest of the world based in Canada. 

Many of these companies are very successful and that’s all fine and dandy in Canada, but the United States of America thinks a bit differently on the matter. Canadian Douglas Rennick was recently arrested in New York and put on trial. 

Rennick was accused of running a $350 million online gambling operation in which he transferred money to U.S. players that wished to make withdrawals through a bank located in Cyprus. 

All in all Rennick was charged with the following: with bank fraud, conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to operate illegal gambling. He admitted that he had transferred money from online gambling companies to gamblers in New York State and will be punished accordingly. 

At this point Rennich has forfeited $17.1 million and is free on $400,000 bail until his Sept. 15 sentencing. His sentencing could lead to his doing 2 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 on top of what he’s already forfeited. In retrospect this is not a terribly large sum of cash considering how much he may have made and that his original charges could have led to him forfeiting $566 million.