Charges laid in Internet gambling operation

NEW YORK -- Criminal charges have been brought against more than two dozen people and corporations in four states in connection with a billion-dollar-a-year gambling website, authorities said yesterday.

Authorities declined to name any of those charged. One of the corporations is an offshore Internet company with an American counterpart, said Kevin Ryan, a spokesman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

Ryan said the case is "one of the first times that a web designer corporation and the companies that maintain the websites have been charged."

He said the arrests by the DA's office and the New York Police Department represent the first time that Internet gambling charges have been brought since President George W. Bush signed into law last month the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.

Ryan said arrests had been made in four states, and "we have initiated a $500-million asset forfeiture case," one of the largest in state history.