WQBE News

Woman pleads guilty to illegal gambling on Facebook Live

A Huntington woman entered a plea this week related to operating an illegal online gambling business on Facebook Live. Allison Jones pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conduct an illegal gambling business, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia. Prosecutors said Jones admitted to conducting the games from September 2020 to October 2022. Jones is accused of hosting two or three online games a week on Facebook Live where viewers would wager an amount of money on pull tabs and watch as Jones pulled the tabs. Each box contained about 4,000 tabs that Jones would typically sell for $1 a piece, netting a profit of $600 to $800 a box. Prosecutors said participants would transfer wagers to Jones through an external online payment system and would get paid the same way. Jones is scheduled to be sentenced on June 17 and faces up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

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