Cantor Gaming CEO Lee Amaitis (pictured) is not the subject of a federal investigation into illegal betting activity, according to a statement issued Thursday by parent company Cantor Fitzgerald LP. The Wall Street financial services firm stated that it felt “compelled to address this irresponsible and baseless rumor” that the Department of Justice was investigating whether Amaitis was aware that former Cantor VP of risk management Mike Colbert knowingly accepted illegal ‘messenger’ bets on behalf of a Queens, New York group known as the Jersey Boys. Cantor Fitzgerald spokesman Robert Hubbell said any suggestion that Amaitis “participated in illegal bookmaking is baseless and false.”
The suggestion that Amaitis was the subject of a federal probe came via a report in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday detailing Colbert’s decision to plead guilty to a single felony conspiracy charge in federal court in September. Colbert’s plea came after the Queens district attorney agreed to drop multiple felony charges filed last October as part of a separate investigation into an illegal sports betting ring associated with Curaçao-based online sportsbook Pinnacle Sports.
Suffice it to say, this was not the subject Cantor execs hoped to be discussing on the day the company opened a new sportsbook in the Bahamas. Amaitis was among the Cantor execs cutting the ribbon at the new 6,860-square-foot sports wagering environment in the Atlantis casino resort on Paradise Island. Amaitis called the venue, which is famous for hosting the annual PokerStars Caribbean Adventure tournament, “a natural choice” for Cantor’s first expansion outside Nevada.
The new Atlantis Race & Sports Book features a 67-foot-wide LED video wall capable of displaying up to 20 separate sporting events in glorious high-definition. The room also features 44 personal wagering stations, six VIP betting stations, eight personal betting lounge stations and eight bar gaming slots. As with Cantor’s eight Nevada-based sportsbooks, the Atlantis facility also offers mobile wagering via Cantor’s mobile sports betting app for Android and iOS devices or via Cantor’s WiFi betting option.
