US Charges Sportsbook Software Owners With Promoting Gambling

The US Department of Justice has arrested three owners of Extension Software, Inc. and charged the owners of promoting gambling in the US District Court of Manhattan.

Robert Stuart (53), Susanne Stuart (50), Patrick Read (53) are the owners of Extension Software, a company who developed and maintained software that allowed bookmakers to manage their sports betting accounting through offshore locations.

The trio stand charged of Promoting Gambling in the First Degree.

Commenting on the arrests, US District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said: “These defendants abetted large-scale illegal gambling in the U.S. and abroad. In doing so, they gave bettors an easy way to place illegal wagers, and created an appetite for further unlawful activity.”

A statement by the DoJ revealed that: "In order to use ASI, bookmakers paid a quarterly licensing fee to Extension for an access key. For continued access, the bookmakers would make payments on the quarterly invoices they received from Extension."

The statement also revealed how licensing fees were paid, noting that: "...the overwhelming majority of the approximately $1.1 million cash and $1.2 million in money orders deposited into Extension’s bank accounts are alleged to be direct proceeds of illegal, U.S.-based bookmaking operations, including operations that conducted their activities in California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York State, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas."

According to the government's investigation, Extension's ASI software is used by several large betting companies including WagerWeb, Heritage Sports and 5Dimes.