According to Bradford Today, Ontario's provincial police are looking into claims that a criminal internet gambling organization targeted high school pupils and threatened to use violence against them if they didn't pay.
Underage students have been urged to sign up to play casino games and place sports bets by the website TopBets and its agents, according to police in the Central Ontario town of Orillia.
According to investigators, students started reporting that they had been threatened due to unpaid gambling debts in April.
One person under the age of eighteen has been detained and charged with two charges of making death threats, according to Orillia Community Mobilization unit sergeant Matt Stoner.
According to Stoner, who spoke to Bradford Today, authorities think the incident is isolated and involves students from at least one city high school. T hen also think there are further victims who have not come forward.
“We are looking to speak with any individual who can assist with the investigation, and then if there are any other victims because we only know of a few that are localized,” Stoner said.
The gambling enterprise most likely makes use of a price-per-head (or pay-per-head) service. Using the services of an offshore pay-per-head software vendor, an unregistered bookmaker can provide internet gambling services to a targeted, local customer.
Regardless of betting volume or weekly winnings and losses, the supplier costs the bookmaker a modest fee for each active bettor associated with his account.
The software gives the bookmaker automatic tools to manage his firm. Although there are no online money transactions, the software tracks and stores bet details. The bookmaker or one of his "agents," who in this instance seems to have been a minor, collects and pays out in person.
Price-per-head companies, who started out as an intermediary for illicit sports betting, have started to expand into internet casinos and race books.
The pay-per-head approach has been employed in a number of recent incidents when authorities have disrupted Mafia gambling and extortion rackets.
The only Canadian jurisdiction with an open, regulated internet gaming market is Ontario. In other places, provincially controlled monopolies manage online casinos and sports betting businesses.
According to an April study by the Ontario Alcohol and Gaming Commission, 86.4% of internet gamblers preferred authorized websites over black market operators.
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