[dad604]

News article:

Sportingbet Chairman Dicks Is Detained by U.S. Authorities

By Dan Weeks

Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Sportingbet Plc, the Web bookmaker that owns Paradise Poker, said Chairman Peter Dicks has been detained by U.S. authorities and a hearing has been scheduled.

The London-based company made the announcement today in a Regulatory News Service statement after requesting a suspension of its shares. Dicks, 64, is the second manager of a U.K. Internet sports-betting company to be held in the U.S. after David Carruthers, former chief executive officer of Betonsports Plc, was arrested in July.

Update:

Sportingbet Chairman Peter Dicks Is Arrested in U.S. (Update)

By Dan Weeks

Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. authorities arrested Sportingbet Plc Chairman Peter Dicks, the second executive of a British gambling company to be held amid a government crackdown on Internet betting.

Dicks, 64, was arrested yesterday at 11:30 p.m. at John F. Kennedy International Airport, said Pasquale DiFulco, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He is being held as a fugitive based on a warrant from Louisiana and is awaiting extradition, DiFulco said. A spokesman for the company declined to comment on his detention.

Shares of online betting companies plunged, and Sportingbet, which gets more than half its revenue from the U.S., asked that trading in its stock be suspended. U.S. officials say online betting sites can be used to launder money and sell drugs, and that they lack safeguards to screen out minors and gambling addicts.

``Unless the chairman is being held on charges unrelated to online gaming, we can probably assume the Department of Justice has an agenda against sports-betting companies that are using telephone lines to make bets,'' said Andrew Lee, an online gaming analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort in London.

[Devilboy]

When this happened to the Party Gaming guy a few weeks ago - that was bad luck. This guy KNEW about that and still decided to visit the US! That's just stupid.

I'm not in the US but for you guys who are - I hope you don't end up losing the ability to play poker online entirely... That would suck. I understand it's becoming pretty tough to cash out your winnings already.

[Wooderson]

I sure am interested to know the charges these guys are faced with. I wouldn't think that any US Government would hold jurisdiction since the companies don't do business in the US, but on the internet in a foreign country. Just makes no sense to me. I understand the US wants to collect tax on the transaction and is using the "oh please, dear God, won't someone think of the children?" line as their reasoning, but it seems to me that they hold no claim.

It seems like a shooting victim's family sued the rifle and bullet manufacturers rather than press charges against the shooter.

[carl1957]

Originally Posted by Wooderson

I sure am interested to know the charges these guys are faced with. I wouldn't think that any US Government would hold jurisdiction since the companies don't do business in the US, but on the internet in a foreign country. Just makes no sense to me. I understand the US wants to collect tax on the transaction and is using the "oh please, dear God, won't someone think of the children?" line as their reasoning, but it seems to me that they hold no claim.

It seems like a shooting victim's family sued the rifle and bullet manufacturers rather than press charges against the shooter.

More like a bystander sueing EVERYBODY........

~3 Billion potential tax dollars and they want to BAN it! ............ But create loopholes for Government lotteries and Horseracing! Like THAT'S not "gambling". SHEEESH!!!