{"id":207209,"date":"2012-08-17T12:06:42","date_gmt":"2012-08-17T17:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ktbb.com\/post\/?p=207209"},"modified":"2012-08-18T16:22:20","modified_gmt":"2012-08-18T21:22:20","slug":"law-enforcement-operation-targets-video-sweepstakes-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=207209","title":{"rendered":"Law Enforcement Operation Targets Video Sweepstakes Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>HALTOM CITY — State investigators Friday arrested senior executives with Haltom City-based HEST Technologies Inc. during a joint operation led by the Texas Attorney General\u2019s Office, the Anderson County Criminal District Attorney\u2019s Office and the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney\u2019s Office. Federal and local law enforcement agencies also executed search warrants at HEST\u2019s headquarters and at the residences of five executives and the operator of an alleged charitable organization. The defendants face felony gambling, money laundering and organized criminal activity charges. The Texas Attorney General\u2019s Office will prosecute the cases in conjunction with the Tarrant and the Anderson County Criminal District Attorney\u2019s Offices. Assistant Attorney General David Glickler will serve as the lead prosecutor for the State.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Texas Attorney General\u2019s Office and the Tarrant and Anderson County Criminal District Attorney\u2019s Offices, the following agencies have participated in the HEST investigation:
\n\u2022 Tarrant County Sheriff\u2019s Office
\n\u2022 Dallas Police Department
\n\u2022 U.S. Secret Service
\n\u2022 FBI\u2019s Dallas and Tyler offices
\n\u2022 Internal Revenue Service\u2019s office in Dallas<\/p>\n

Assistance was also provided by the California Department of Justice, the Massachusetts Attorney General\u2019s Office, the Massachusetts State Police and the Virginia Commonwealth Attorney\u2019s Office in Virginia Beach.<\/p>\n

HEST\u2019s promotional materials claim the corporation develops \u201csweepstakes promotional systems.\u201d According to the felony charges filed against the defendants. However, officials allege HEST\u2019s so-called \u201csweepstakes\u201d systems constitute illegal gambling devices. As a result, the defendants face organized criminal activity charges for allegedly conspiring to violate state laws that prohibit gambling.<\/p>\n

Assistant Attorney General Glickler, who is coordinating the multi-jurisdictional investigation, has successfully prosecuted video sweepstakes operations for gambling violations in the past. According to AAG Glickler, video sweepstakes promoters often attempt to circumvent anti-gambling laws by claiming to sell a lawful service \u2013 such as time at an Internet caf\u00e9 \u2013 that is used to induce gamblers to participate in an illegal electronic sweepstakes. Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rejected two video sweepstakes promoters\u2019 legal argument, finding: \u201c\u2026the main purpose of [the defendants\u2019] Internet caf\u00e9s was to induce people to play the sweepstakes, and that the Internet time sold by the caf\u00e9s\u2026was not the primary subject of the transaction, but instead mere subterfuge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HALTOM CITY — State investigators Friday arrested senior executives with Haltom City-based HEST Technologies Inc. during a joint operation led by the Texas Attorney General\u2019s Office, the Anderson County Criminal District Attorney\u2019s Office and the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney\u2019s Office. Federal and local law enforcement agencies also executed search warrants at HEST\u2019s headquarters and … Continue reading Law Enforcement Operation Targets Video Sweepstakes Scheme<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 12:37:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=207209"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207362,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207209\/revisions\/207362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=207209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=207209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=207209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}