Israeli Police Bust Multi-Billion Dollar Gambling Ring

Israeli police have now arrested 44 people involved in the country’s biggest ever gambling ring, believed to have been worth around $7 billion over its five year history.
Following the collapse of Israeli Trade Bank in April 2002 after a massive fraud was uncovered, Israel’s criminal gangs apparently set up a new financing channel through an illegal gambling and money laundering ring headed by three brothers Ron, Yaron and Dror Kaplan.
The men created and operated an online website called Donbet which claimed to be a standard legal gambling site, but was in actual fact an illegal gambling operation which first targeted big-money gamblers in the real world who would then have to buy in and access the site through imparted secret codes. The gamblers could then wager money on games housed on global established Internet sites, as well as place sports bets. As Tel Aviv Police District Commander Gadi Eshed, explains:
“Ever since the commercial bank affair, crime organizations have been looking for new sources of revenue, and this ring was clearly one of them..[The operation] served as a lifeline for some of the country’s most active crime organizations..There is no doubt that the astronomical sums of money moved by this operation rendered it the largest such illegal gambling ring in Israel’s history.”
After police became aware of millions of dollars being generated through an illegal gambling operation, they subsequently followed the money trail which lead them to online gambling website “Donbet”. Such was the scale of  operation that in addition to executives and computer technicians, it also employed over 200 sales agents to help drag in more business.
Apparently, these sales agents were given specific instructions to recruit only gamblers they could personally vouch for and would pay gambling debts without turning to the police. A network of ring agents including taxi drivers were then used to collect debts. After the arrests, those men involved are now facing a range of charges including money laundering, running an illegal gambling operation, and tax evasion.