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Friday 21st July 2006 Online Betting Operators Avoid FBI Sting
As the US crackdown on Internet gambling gathers momentum, it has been reported that an international conference of online gambling operators in Las Vegas has been cancelled at the eleventh hour, amid fears of further FBI activity in the industry.
Guests at the annual online gaming conference at a top Las Vegas hotel next week were due to include senior executives from SportsDirect, OffshoreBettor, Casino City, GamesandCasino, Smart Interactive and PokerAffiliateWorld plus a London-based managing director of the City bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Chris Treneman. The basketball star Magic Johnson had also been booked as a keynote speaker.
The organiser, Bodog.com’s Calvin Ayre, released a brief statement yesterday saying the event had been postponed due to 'a high level of concern over the uncertainty surrounding the US government's recent actions against one of the companies in our industry'.
Mr Ayre continued by revealing many of his peers feared entering America. 'This will cause all executives of any substance trading in our space to change their travel plans until some certainty comes into play,' he said. 'I would be surprised if there's any executive who isn't sitting down with their lawyers trying to work out the implications.”
Meanwhile, there is growing frustration among online gambling operators listed on the London stock market about the apparent 'loose language' emanating from the US department of justice concerning the legality of poker and casino websites taking bets from American punters. Online gaming firms that do not take sports bets insist their operations are legitimate.
Source: OnlineCasinoNews
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