Gambling operations are taking steps to sidestep a new U.S. law targeting financial transfers to offshore casinos and sportsbooks.

Meanwhile, some companies — legitimate or perhaps otherwise — are popping up on the Internet with the goal of providing a third-party intermediary for U.S. gamblers.

Thursday Sportingbet PLC said it had unloaded its popular Sportsbook…. brand to its current management team. Sportingbet said it sold the operation for a single U.S. dollar and that the current management assumed some $13.2 million in liabilities, presumably deposits from gamblers.

Sportsbook….’s Web site boasts “business as usual,” and seems to have no qualms about dealing with U.S. gamblers.

The Sportsbook…. owner now is Jazette Enterprises Ltd., which also happens to be the name of a Gibraltar shelf company offered for sale since its May 22 incorporation by Aston International Limited, an Isle of Man company that deals in registering firms in various tax havens.

The names of officers of Jazette were not provided, but the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission, which supervises corporations on the tiny British overseas holding says it routinely provides information to regulators of other countries.

The deal involves operations in Dublin, Antigua, Vancouver and San Jose with about 500 employees. Sportingbet PLC said it would have cost $14 million to simply shut down the operations directed to the United States.

Although Sportsbook…. is now in private hands, Sportingbet PLC said it can buy it back for $500,000 if the U.S. law does not go into effect.

Jazette and Sportsbook…. also agreed not to take any bets from non-U.S. residents for two years, said Sportingbet PLC.

On the Internet several firms, including  A & S Marketing’s Anglo-American Leisure Club, have started spamming computer users with an offer to set up a system so they transfer betting funds offshore. A&S said it was in Shoeburyness, Essex, England, and said gamblers could deposit and receive online gaming funds via a secure and discreet UK link.

Peter Dicks, the former chairman of Sportingbet PLC was detained in New York on a Louisiana warrant last month. Eventually, he was let go when New York officials decided not to honor the warrant because Dicks had not been in the southern state recently.

That was before the U.S. congress passed the  Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 early Oct. 1. The measure does not directly outlaw Internet gambling, although U.S. Justice Department officials contend such activity is illegal.

But the act does put the burden on credit card companies and financial institutions to keep money from being used to pay for offshore bets.