Legal sports betting was supposed to put the black market out of business. Instead, even as regulated sportsbooks have become an ubiquitous part of the U.S. sports landscape, unsanctioned bookmakers continue to attract billions of dollars annually from Americans. That’s why regulators in six states where sports betting is legal recently ordered Bovada, a prominent offshore sportsbook based in Curaçao, to stop taking online bets from residents.
To some, the cease-and-desist letters from Colorado, Connecticut, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia seemed like a toothless way of taking on a company that for years has violated U.S. laws against unregulated bookmaking — akin to drug-enforcement agents asking cartels to please knock it off.