Find the story here:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/la...ling-operation
"A Las Vegas betting expert was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in federal prison for running an illegal gambling operation and hiding money from the IRS. Tony Chau, 32, a Vietnamese immigrant who marketed an online wagering system to customers across the country, also was ordered to pay $567,571 in restitution to the IRS and forfeit another $1.4 million to the government. U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware also told Chau he would have to serve 200 hours of community service and stay out of the gambling business during three years of supervised release after prison...."
I get that he hid money from the IRS but not sure how selling betting systems and picks is classified as an "illegal gambling operation"
He used to go under the alias Jim Morrison and ran 2 sites. About 1 year ago he was shut down by the FBI for false claims and some other misleading stuff. So he had to tell his customers his life story and his real name, then he was back in business.
The first site was http://sportsbettingchamp.com/ witch has been seized by the feds. He sold "Betting Systems" Most of them were martingale type bets. If you lost the 3rd progression bet it was the equivalent of about 11 units. If you followed his system at the end of the year you were break even at best after the juice but he always touted a winning record since he only counted the second and third progression bet as a single loss.
The second one he still runs is http://www.picksbuffet.com/ He claims to buys picks from top handicappers and then selects the top few picks that most "experts" agreed on. Some of the picks were break even at the end of the year but his NFL picks were about a 65% win rate.