The FBI sounded the alarm on Dec. 17 regarding the risks associated with sports gambling as its popularity continues to gain steam across the United States.
The law enforcement bureau noted that 39 states and the District of Columbia have legalized some variant of sports betting, but it said that “illegal sportsbooks and illegal online gaming sites” are still widespread.
Some $673.6 billion is wagered each year by Americans via illegal or unregulated gambling markets, the FBI said, citing data from the American Gambling Association.
“Individuals engaged in illegal gambling risk funding organized crime activity and becoming vulnerable to violence, extortion, and fraud,” the FBI said in its bulletin released on Wednesday, adding that it is working to target “organized crime and illegal gambling operations.”
Some gambling sites operated in other countries have advertisements that target Americans and seek to obscure their respective countries of origin, the agency said. These offshore sites do not follow the same legal regulations as licensed sports books in the United States, it added.
Furthermore, the bureau said that the gambling profits gained by these organized crime groups can fund human trafficking, drug smuggling, and weapon smuggling activities.
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