Jay Cohen

Who is Jay Cohen?

Jay Cohen is the cofounder and CEO of World Sports Exchange, an online gambling company from 1996 until July 24, 2000, when he was the first United States citizen to be convicted in US Federal Court for violation of the Federal Wire Act for operating an online gambling company from a jurisdiction where it was legal and regulated.

As of August 2006, Cohen remains the only executive of a legally licensed Internet gambling company that has been convicted of violating United States law. David Carruthers of BetonSports and Peter Dicks of Sportingbet PLC are each awaiting separate trials on similar charges, although both men are citizens of the United Kingdom while Cohen is an American citizen.

Cohen's case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court, but it refused to hear the appeal. He was released in March 2004.