11th Cir. Pattern Jury Instr. (Criminal) O44

18 U.S.C. § 1084

It’s a Federal crime for anyone engaged in betting or wagering as a business

to use a wire -communication facility for an interstate transmission of a bet or

betting information on any sporting event.

The Defendant can be found guilty of this crime only if all the following

facts are proved beyond a reasonable doubt:

(1) the Defendant was in the business of betting;

(2) as a part of the business, the Defendant knowingly used a wire -

communication facility to send in interstate [or foreign] commerce

bets or information to help with placing bets on a sporting event; and

(3) the defendant did so knowingly and intentionally.

The “business of betting” doesn’t mean that a person’s primary source of

income must come from making bets or wagers, or dealing in wagering

information. It doesn’t matter how many bets a person has made or how much

money the person bet, or whether the person made a profit on betting.

To prove the Defendant was “in the business of betting,” it must be proved

beyond a reasonable doubt that the Defendant regularly engaged in activities

devoted to betting or wagering with the goal of making a profit. Isolated or

sporadic activities are not a business.

A “wire-communication facility” includes long-distance telephone facilities.

Information conveyed or received by telephone from one state to another

state [or between the United States and a foreign country], is a transmission in

“interstate” [or “foreign”] commerce.