Online Gambling Not Tied to Racist Murder

A leading writer on online gambling affairs, Thomas Somach, has been severely criticized for linking the murderer of the guard at Washington's Holocaust Museum with online gambling.

James von Brunn, an 88-year-old former soldier turned white supremacist, gunned down 39-year-old Stephen T. Johns outside the museum dedicated to the memory of Jews murdered by the Nazis in World War 2.

Somach, who is the owner of website Pokerhelp.com, claimed that because von Brunn's website contained links to the Casino Tropez online casino, there may be a link between the white supremacist movement and online gambling. Von Brunn's website was full of racist and anti-Semitic propaganda.

"Irresponsible Reporting"
Somach was blasted by the gambling industry for irresponsible reporting. Critics stated that while von Brunn's website may have contained an affiliate link, this did not directly indicate that the racist murderer was involved with the online gambling industry in any significant way.

One critic stated this was equivalent of linking the racist murderer to the publishing industry if his site had contained an easily accessible link to Amazon. Somach's work is widely syndicated throughout the online gambling industry.

Accountability
However, despite the furor caused by Somach's remarks, there does remain an open issue of affiliate site accountability. This event raised an important question on whether gambling websites, and indeed any large businesses that operate affiliate website programs, actually check on those affiliate sites that promote their companies.

Von Brunn's website should have been spotted by the affiliate manager at the St Tropez website, and clearly it was not.