Canadian cops bust Super Bowl online betting party
News on 4 Feb 2013
News on 4 Feb 2013
The Canadian media are widely reporting on a major police raid that featured armed SWAT-like officers halting an alleged internet sports betting party in Toronto over the weekend.
The gathering at a Markham banquet hall Sunday night was apparently attended by thousands of Canadians enjoying the Super Bowl broadcast through large screen television and allegedly placing bets through the organiser’s website, Platinum SB.
Platinum SB’s website has been shut down by police, bearing a note Sunday night that stated, “The web site you are trying to access has been restrained by court order granted to the Attorney General of Ontario with the assistance of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU).”
The party was in full swing when a large number of policemen arrived, including officers from a tactical unit, in full gear, with helmets, black balaclavas, body armour and automatic weapons. Several officers were posted at each entrance and police vans waited outside.
The officers produced a search warrant and advised the crowds through loudspeakers that the party was being shut down for suspected illegal online sports betting offences. The television coverage was switched off, and the crowd began to disperse, with isolated incidents in which several people were reportedly arrested.
A spokesman for the York regional police, Constable Blair McQuillan, later advised reporters that the raid was conducted by a joint police task force on an enterprise “…that handled millions of dollars in bets.”
Photos posted on Twitter of tickets to the event indicated it was organised by Platinum SB, a sports online betting site.
One witness told reporters that there were three to four thousand people in attendance at the ‘by invitation-only’ party, watching the game on giant screens and waiting for dinner.
Shortly after the first quarter, “all the cops came in,” the witness said. “They shut down the bar, went through the crowd, stopped at some tables and read a warrant with a megaphone.”
The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU), a formation dedicated to combating organised crime, said in a news release that the “investigation revealed the illegal gaming enterprise was allegedly run by organised crime groups.”
