Heads-Up with FairPlayUSA Advisor, Former FBI Director Louis Freeh
Posted on January 18, 2012
PocketFives
January 18, 2012
By John Douglas
Pushing for the Federal regulation of online poker in the United States is FairPlayUSA. The organization features an eclectic set of advisors, among them former FBI Director Judge Louis Freeh (pictured). The fifth Director of the FBI, Freeh has also served as an Assistant United States Attorney and is now the Founder and Senior Managing Partner of Freeh, Sporkin, and Sullivan. PocketFives sat down with Freeh to get his take on the current status of online poker in the United States.
PocketFives: Why did you decide to join the Board of Advisors of FairPlayUSA?
Judge Louis Freeh: It was the law enforcement piece that interested me from the start. I have long been aware of the problems associated with illegal gambling, going back to my earliest days in the FBI when I was assigned organized crime cases in the FBI’s New York City Field Office. I saw how what seemed like a little innocuous gambling was actually generating millions for organized crime and leading to a host of other crimes along the way, including money laundering, murder, and other violent crimes.
The advent of illegal online gambling is only the latest manifestation and so getting involved to try to raise awareness of this issue with the American public was actually an extension of what I had been doing for more than 30 years in criminal prosecutions.