News Release

State Directs Phone Companies to Block Canadian Indian Tribe's 800 Number for Illegal Sports Betting

January 9, 1997

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Chief State's Attorney John Bailey are joining forces to direct all long distance telephone companies to block calls to an 800 number for a sports-betting operation run by a Canadian Indian tribe.

They said the Tobique Maliseets' 800 number violates state and federal laws. The tribe, which is based in Tobique, New Brunswick, apparently has been offering the 800 number sports betting service for about five months.

"The interstate operation of this gambling business through the use of a wire communication facility violates both Connecticut and Federal law," Blumenthal and Bailey said in a letter to the telephone companies. The telephone companies include SNET, AT&T, MCI, NYNEX, and Sprint.

In relation to another Indian gambling operation, Blumenthal and Bailey together directed all phone companies in March 1995 to block calls to a proposed 800 number for a national lottery that would be run by the Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Idaho.

In addition to placing advertisements in newspapers and gambling magazines, the Maliseets promote their 800 number on their Web page, which allows bettors to set up an account via computer. Bettors apparently are instructed to wire money into a Canadian bank by credit card, Western Union, or from their own bank accounts. They receive identification numbers which they use when they call the 800 number to place bets.

Blumenthal is introducing legislation in the 1997 General Assembly that would clearly prohibit gambling on the Internet. The legislation would establish civil penalties of up to $1,000 per violation for illegal gambling on the Internet, injunctive relief, and civil forfeiture of the property used specifically for such illegal gambling.