Online gambling empire Bodog
In April - former Vancouver resident Calvin Ayre caught industry observers by surprise when he announced he was quitting his online gambling empire - Bodog -, purportedly to regain his privacy and further his charitable activities. The surprise was compounded when he claimed he had transferred ownership of Bodog a year earlier to the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, which runs hundreds of gaming websites from the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal. *I was really more of a brand ambassador for Bodog the past while anyway – but it was fun while it lasted,* he said on the Bodog website. Are we really to believe that Ayre, who had been flamboyantly and boisterously playing the role of Bodog’s fun-loving top dog until then, had actually checked out months before, and that his motive was simply to live a life of quiet reflection and philanthropy? I think not.! It is widely known that the U.S. government, which has declared war on unlicensed Internet gambling, has Calvin Ayre in its crosshairs. It is more likely that he is trying to distance himself from any future prosecutions. This theory was reinforced last week when Forbes magazine reported that the U.S. government has seized $24 million from U.S. bank accounts linked to Bodog. More than half the money was seized in January and February, before Ayre suddenly decided that a more sedentary life was in order. The seizures were made by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service from the accounts of payment processors, the companies that facilitate the disbursement of gambling money to Bodog customers. 
However -Â Bodog operates extensively in the United States, and taking bets from U.S. gamblers over the phone and via the Internet. (And I don’t think this will change) Cheers!!