In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Introduction:฀Kennedy’s฀War฀Continues Jay฀Cohen’s฀defiant฀hope,฀Bobby฀Kennedy’s฀first฀crusade,฀and฀the฀ relevance฀of฀a฀1961฀anti-mob฀statute฀to฀Internet฀gaming฀today. February 24, 2002. Southern District Court, New York City. Honorable Thomas P. Griesa presiding. Until the judge started giving the jury its instructions, Jay Cohen felt pretty confident that he’d be back at his desk at the World Sports Exchange in a week or two. Sure, the prosecutors had shown the jury lots of evidence proving that his company had accepted bets from undercover agents over the phone and on the Web. But they had never proved that he intended to break the law, defraud anyone, or do anything but run a legal, licensed business. Throughout the trial, Cohen’s attorney, Benjamin Brafman, had conceded that his client had been the president of the World Sports Exchange. He couldn’t have denied it if he had wanted to—Cohen had appeared in Sports Illustrated and the Wall Street Journal, and had even testified before Congress. That he was a founder of one of the most reputable, innovative sports betting Web sites wasn’t at issue, Cohen thought. The trial was about whether he had broken the law. And Cohen was sure he had not. After all, taking bets online was legal in Antigua, and it didn’t seem to be illegal in New York. He’d consciously patterned the wse on Capital otb, an off-track betting concern that paid millions in taxes each year. As he watched Brafman deliver his closing argument to the jury, Cohen felt good about his chances. Judge Griesa had started out innocuously enough, telling the jurors the importance of weighing the evidence, and of the consideration of witness credibility. Cohen knew he couldn’t have been more credible; he took the stand in his own defense and laid out his case for the jurors, plain and simple . He’d studied this new business, sought the best legal and financial advice , and acted accordingly. Moving to Antigua while still paying for a condo in the Bay Area hadn’t been a day at the beach. He missed the little things that everyone living in the United States takes for granted—cheeseburgers, for God’s sake. His family, too, for that matter. He’d followed all the rules. The jury would have to see that and acquit him. But as the judge continued, Cohen felt his heart start to beat faster; even Brafman began to look a little nervous. When Griesa said, “I want to start by discussing with you the law that is applicable, and that is a statute which we 1 2 cutting฀the฀wire refer to as Title 18 United States Code Section 1084,” Cohen’s day in court turned into a nightmare. He listened, speechless, as the judge told the jury that it didn’t matter whether Cohen’s business was licensed in Antigua, or that off-track betting was legal in New York. The judge then instructed the jury that to find Cohen guilty, they only had to conclude that Cohen was in the business of accepting bets and that his service had provided betting information to undercover officers—something that Brafman had conceded at the start of his case. Suddenly, coming back to New York to fight charges of violating the Wire Act didn’t seem like such a good idea. So Jay Cohen wasn’t that optimistic when, four days later, after fruitless objections by his attorneys, the jury filed back into the courtroom and he stood awaiting their verdict. As the deputy court clerk asked them how they found in the case of United States v. Cohen, 98Cr. 434, count 1, the foreman answered “guilty.” On each of eight counts, for every possible clause, the response was the same: guilty. As Joseph DeMarco, the lead assistant U.S. attorney presenting the government ’s case, started to smile, Cohen remembered a fragment of his opening statement: “A federal law known as Title 18 United States Code Section 1084 makes it a crime for bookies like Cohen to take bets using the phone lines.” How am I a bookie? Cohen wondered. And where did this Section 1084 come from, anyway? How, if Congress was still debating an Internet gambling prohibition, was a law passed in 1961 being used to put him in prison? Cohen’s questions have answers. Section 1084 (the Wire Act) became law as the...

Share