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Jay Cohen Sentencing Postponed

Herbert Hadad, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, told RGTonline.com today: "Jay Cohen was scheduled to be sentenced on May 23, but the sentencing has now been postponed until 10:30 a.m., Thursday, June 29."

Hadad gave no reason for the delay.

People throughout the online gambling industry have been awaiting the Cohen sentencing ever since Cohen was convicted Feb. 28 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan of running an illegal sports betting service via the Internet.

Cohen, after a two-week jury trial, was found guilty on seven felony counts of violating the federal Wire Act by accepting sports wagers over a wire transmission facility and guilty on one felony count of conspiracy to violate the Wire Act. Sentencing was set for May 23 by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Griesa.

It was the first trial and conviction in U.S. history for taking sports wagers over the Internet.

Cohen faces up to two years in federal prison for each count of violating the Wire Act and up to five years in federal prison for the conspiracy count, for a total of up to 19 years.

He also faces up to $2 million in fines.

Jay Charles Cohen, 33, grew up in Woodmere, Long Island, New York, and attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he received a degree in nuclear engineering.

After graduation, Cohen didn't enter the nuclear field. Instead, he took a job at San Francisco's stock market, the Pacific Exchange, where he met an older stockbroker and small-time bookie from Chicago named Steve Schillinger.

A few years later, after Schillinger got kicked out of the Pacific Exchange for life for illegally booking sports bets on the Exchange floor, Cohen and Schillinger headed for the tiny Caribbean island nation of Antigua, where in 1997 they co-founded WSEX.

In March 1998, Cohen, Schillinger and two other WSEX employees -- as well as 17 other Americans from eight other online sports betting operations in the Caribbean and Central America -- were charged by the U.S. government with accepting online sports wagers from the U.S.

Most of the 21 who were charged have either pleaded guilty and gotten out of the Internet bookmaking business, or remain fugitives from justice.

Cohen, proclaiming his innocence, was the only one of the 21 to demand a court trial on the charges.

Those who pleaded guilty and avoided trial received fines, house arrest or both. None received jail time, which Cohen is expected to receive for his conviction.

Cohen remains free until at least his sentencing, but is not permitted to leave the New York area.

His attorney, Benjamin Brafman of New York, has said Cohen will appeal his conviction.

Remaining fugitives in Antigua on Internet bookmaking charges are WSEX's Schillinger, Haden Ware and Spencer Hanson and Worldwide Tele-Sports' (WWTS') Bill Scott and Jessica Davis. Another fugitive, Brian Janus of Royal Sports (formerly Galaxy Sports), is in Curacao.

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