Sportingbet chairman detained in U.S.

[The Judge]

Gaming stocks slump amid fears of crack-down
By Simon Kennedy, MarketWatch
Last Update: 7:37 AM ET Sep 7, 2006

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. online betting company Sportingbet said Thursday that its non-executive chairman, Peter Dicks, has been detained by U.S. authorities while in that country.

Sportingbet's announcement sparked a sharp sell-off in gaming stocks amid fears that Dicks' detention could indicate a U.S. crack-down on companies that let U.S. residents gamble. Dicks, 64, was in the U.S. on non-Sportingbet business, the company said.

The move by U.S. authorities mirrors the arrest of David Carruthers, then CEO of BetOnSports, in July over alleged violations of U.S. gambling laws. Carruthers was detained in the U.S. while changing planes.

Carruthers, along with BetOnSports, is facing racketeering and fraud charges. He was reportedly freed on a $1 million bond earlier in August after spending around a month behind bars.

After Carruthers' arrest, a court also issued a temporary restraining order requiring BetOnSports to suspend its Web sites for U.S. customers.

Both detentions have related specifically to firms that offer sports betting services.

Sportingbet immediately asked for its shares, which were already down 2.1% in London trading, to be suspended pending further clarification of the situation.

The company noted a hearing for Dicks is scheduled for 9 a.m. Eastern.

Several other gaming stocks tumbled on the news.

Shares in World Gaming Plc slumped 21.2% to 72.5 pence a share. The company had earlier gained as much as 5% after announcing that it was in preliminary talks to be bought by Sportingbet in a deal that would have been worth around 104 pence a share.

Elsewhere in the sector, PartyGaming fell around 12%, giving up earlier gains that came on the back of a 74% rise in profit.

PartyGaming has been seen by analysts as less likely to face a U.S. crack-down, because it only offers poker and casino gambling, rather than sports betting, to U.S. customers.

 

[Agent 0659]

:wtf: :wtf: :wtf:

 

[Terryray]

hey, NFL season starts today.....

hey, NFL season starts today.....

Sportingbet's Chairman Is Held by U.S. Authorities (Update5)

By Dan Weeks

Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Sportingbet Plc said Chairman Peter Dicks was detained in the U.S., the second manager of a British company to be held amid a clampdown on online gambling.

Dicks, 64, was detained at 2 a.m. London time today and will face a hearing at 2 p.m., Sportingbet said in a statement. A spokesman for the company declined to elaborate on the reasons for the arrest and wouldn't comment.

Sportingbet stock slid 44 percent in two days in July after David Carruthers, then the chief executive officer of U.K. Web bookmaker Betonsports Plc, was arrested and charged with crimes including racketeering and fraud. A U.S. court ordered Betonsports to stop accepting wagers from the country, its main market, and return deposits to American gamblers.

``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.

Calls to the media lines for the U.S. Justice Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs weren't immediately answered before business hours today.

U.S. Clients

London-based Sportingbet, which first sold shares to investors in January 2001, accepted almost 150 million sports and gaming wagers in the fiscal third quarter that ended April 30. About four-fifths of clients are American. Betonsports said last month it would shut down units that take bets from the U.S.

The number of American customers who used Sportingbet's Web sites to bet on athletics rose 51 percent from a year earlier to almost 165,000 in the quarter. Sports wagers numbered 8.2 million and averaged $51 in size.

Sportingbet, which has a market value of 1 billion pounds ($1.9 billion), made the announcement today in a statement after asking for its shares to be suspended. Shares of PartyGaming Plc, the world's biggest Internet poker company, dropped as much as 19 percent in London.

Online gambling has become a $12 billion-a-year industry for companies including Gibraltar-based PartyGaming, which got more than four-fifths of its sales from the U.S. last year. Carruthers was indicted about a week after American legislators approved a measure to stifle online gambling by restricting the flow of money to illegal gaming Web sites.

Rivals' Shares Slide

PartyGaming stock fell as much as 22.5 pence to 94.75 pence in London today and was down 6.6 percent to 109.5 pence at 1:19 p.m. local time. Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG, an Austrian online bookmaker, slid 3.28 euros, or 12 percent, to 23.84 euros in Vienna, rebounding from a drop of as much as 19 percent.

Leisure & Gaming Plc, which owns betting brands including VIPsports, dropped 22.5 pence, or 31 percent, to 51 pence in London. 888 Holdings Plc, the largest online casino operator, slid 24 pence, or 14 percent, to 147 pence.

The U.S. government views Internet gambling as illegal under a 1961 law that bars the use of telephone lines to make interstate wagers. Sports betting triggered the only case in which someone has been tried and jailed in the U.S. for running an illegal Web gambling business, Greg Harris, an analyst at Canaccord Adams in London, said when Carruthers was charged.

NFL Season

Dicks, whose detention was announced on the same day that the U.S. National Football League starts its season, was visiting the U.S. for reasons unrelated to Sportingbet, the company said in the statement. Betonsports' Carruthers was detained in Dallas while changing planes on a trip.

Investors had believed Betonsports was ``totally different to what Sportingbet does,'' Dresdner Kleinwort's Lee said.

Along with Carruthers, the Betonsports indictment named people including company founder Gary Kaplan, who allegedly has not paid federal wagering excise taxes on more than $3.3 billion in bets taken from the U.S. The indictment seeks the forfeiture of $4.5 billion from Kaplan and other co-defendants.

Dicks became non-executive chairman of Sportingbet.com Plc, as the company was known, in January 2000 and also is chairman of Daniel Stewart Securities Plc.

Jay Cohen, the former president of online bookmaker World Sports Exchange, is the only person to be jailed for running an illegal Internet gambling business in the U.S. He was among 14 people charged in March 1998 and was convicted in February 2000. Cohen unsuccessfully appealed his 21-month sentence all the way to the Supreme Court.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Weeks

Last Updated: September 7, 2006 08:57 EDT

 

[Terryray]

$1.5 billion market value wiped out so far

$1.5 billion market value wiped out so far

Online gaming stocks dive as U.S. holds exec


All Reuters News

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States detained a second Internet gaming executive on Thursday, adding to fears it is cracking down on the lucrative industry and sparking share price falls that wiped over $1.5 billion off the market value of the sector.

Online bookmaker Sportingbet Plc said its chairman, Peter Dicks, had been detained by U.S. authorities -- a move that mirrored the detention in July of another online gaming CEO on racketeering charges.

Shares reacted instantly across the $12 billion-a-year industry, with industry leader PartyGaming plunging as much as 19 percent, 888 Holdings Plc down as much as 18 percent and Playtech down as much as 17 percent.

Shares in Austria's bwin.com Interactive Entertainment also slumped.

"This arrest highlights the U.S. Department of Justice is going after online gaming companies by arresting their board members," said a London analyst who declined to be named.

Sportingbet said it had sought immediate temporary suspension of its shares pending clarification of the situation. Dicks was arrested at 0100 GMT on Thursday and his hearing is scheduled for 1300 GMT, it added without giving a location.

Analysts said Sportingbet's U.S.-focused sports betting business was similar to that of BETonSPORTS , whose CEO David Carruthers was arrested in Texas in July.

Carruthers and seven others pleaded not guilty to racketeering and other charges. The Costa Rica-based company has since said it is closing its U.S. business.

"Clearly the first indictment against BETonSPORTS was not a company-specific issue," said the London analyst.

News of Dicks's detention overshadowed strong results from PartyGaming, which said core profit rose 47 percent in the first six months of the year and stressed it was reducing its dependence on the U.S. market.

PartyGaming said it whittled down the percentage of revenues it takes from the United States to 77 percent in the first half, from 86 percent a year earlier.

PartyGaming has been trying to reduce its U.S. exposure for over a year, partly as a response to attempts by some U.S. politicians to get Internet gaming banned.

PartyGaming Chief Executive Mitch Garber told a conference call on Thursday the anti-gambling bill, backed by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, faced opposition in the Senate and time was running short ahead of U.S. elections.

"Time is in short supply and the bill continues to face opposition, but this is politics and we are not complacent, and the outcome remains uncertain," he said.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Cable)

Copyright 2006 Reuters

 

[wareagle]

withdraw from sportsbook.com now!

 

[wareagle]

Sportingbet plc owns sportsbook.com, sportingbet.com, hollywoodsportsbook.com, and numerous other sites.

 

[Agent 0659]

Sportingbet plc owns sportsbook.com, sportingbet.com, hollywoodsportsbook.com, and numerous other sites.

What other numerous sites?:com:

 

[amich1]

While it is unlikely that SportingBet will rollover and hide like BoS did, you may want to consider withdrawing money from any SportingBet PLC operation:

52Bet
ABCsportsbook
Aces.com
AllHorseRacing
AllProSportsbook
AllStar
AztecGaming
BetInVegas
BetUK
BetUSA.com
CasinoVenture
CasinoWelt
ClubVipCasino
EuroSportWetten
Gambling.net
GamingCosmos
HollywoodSportsbook.com
Iwager
Linesmaker.com
MySportsbook.com
Parier
PlaceMyBet
PlayersOnly.com
ProBets
Racebook
PARADISEPOKER.COM
SB28
ScoreOnSports
SportFanatik
SportingBet.com
SportingBetUSA.com
SportingOdds
SportingParlor
Sports
Sportsbetting.com
Sportsbook.com
Sportsbooks
SportsWager
SuperBahis
SuperBook
SuperSportsbook
TakaraCasino
TheBestBet
USDbet
WagerTonight
WallStreet
WallStreetBets
Win4Real

You may all also want to write your DEMOCRATIC congress person as the bill to ban ALL internet gambling in the US will be debated in the next month or two. The republicans sold their souls to the "moral majority" long ago. This is a bunch of BS

 

[Terryray]

The ****** News
9/7/2006

Sportingbet plc non-exec Chairman Peter Dicks Latest Victim of the U.S. DoJ


Sportingbet PLC non-executive chairman Peter Dicks was arrested by U.S. authorities Thursday morning. Dicks is the latest victim of a political maneuver inspired by supporters of the ban of online gambling and executed by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Peter Dicks was visiting the United States on vacation when he was taken into custody. Sportingbet plc sought immediate suspension of the company's shares on the AIM pending clarification of the situation.

Dicks' arrest confirms what gaming operators began to fear after David Carruthers' arrest on July 16. The BETonSPORTS situation is no longer an isolated case but becomes the first of the U.S. DoJ series of actions against gambling companies.

Sportingbet's players fear they'll have to endure the same fate of players affected by the BETonSPORTS fiasco. "With the latest exec being detained, do you feel I will get paid by Sportsbook.com?" A worried customer of sportsbook.com, the U.S. facing flagship of Sportingbet plc, asked ********* this morning.? Or would you guess they will be shutting down in the next 4 weeks or keeping US players' funds like BetonSports?"

"The arrest of yet another executive of a British publicly traded gaming company is the latest disturbing action of the U.S. Department of Justice." said Roberto Castiglioni, founder of **********. "It?s time for the United Kingdom government to undertake those actions aimed to restore respect of international rights, especially in consideration of the DoJ annoying strategy of arresting unsuspecting individuals to satisfy the quest for publicity of the political sponsors of the anti gambling bill."

 

[cisco]

More sites owned by Sportingbet..

http://online.casinocity.com/ownership/owner.cfm?Start=1&Id=4204

 

[The Judge]

I am more than a little surprised that this news has not gotten more attention here at MJ's. :shrug:

 

[Penguinfan]

Judge, I think most of us don't want to talk about it because we fear the worst is on the horizon.

 

[MadJack]

I am more than a little surprised that this news has not gotten more attention here at MJ's. :shrug:

maybe trickle down effect? because i'm not worried in the least. can't do a damn thing about something i can't control but i do know one thing. they will NEVER shut down internet gambling, period. it ain't gonna happen. laws or no laws, there will still be a way to do what we like to do and nobody is going to stop us, period

 

[RexBudler]

maybe trickle down effect? because i'm not worried in the least. can't do a damn thing about something i can't control but i do know one thing. they will NEVER shut down internet gambling, period. it ain't gonna happen. laws or no laws, there will still be a way to do what we like to do and nobody is going to stop us, period

I agree Jack. I am not worried at all about any of this or any other happenings about the banning of internet gambling

 

[BobbyBlueChip]

I agree Jack. I am not worried at all about any of this or any other happenings about the banning of internet gambling

But I am a little worried that sportsbook owners won't be taking any more vacations in our countries anymore.

This is so f'in ricockulous

 

[THE KOD]

Sorry but I smell a rat somewhere.

Guy on vacation. Gets arrested. All of a sudden his company is in jeaprody of being shut down.

Then they keep the money of everyone go out of business.

Something is not right with this.

 

[vinnie]

laws or no laws, there will still be a way to do what we like to do and nobody is going to stop us, period

that's for should

 

[LetsMakeMoney]

betus is advertising the chit of their company (radio,billboards all over los angeles and i mean allll over los angeles and also seen above gas pumps) i thought it was illegal :shrug:

 

[BleedDodgerBlue]

he was held on state charges from louisiana, NOT federal charges. big difference.

forbes also thinks that because his operation or any operation took phone wagers that it is a big difference. don't forget the internet is still largely unchartered territory.

as for the books listed, they aren't any i've used with the exception of sportsbook 5 years ago and they were a disaster. paradise poker will interest me although i haven't played there in years, interested to see if the poker accounts are frozen or not. i didn't even know they had a sportsbook now.

i really think this is just the state of louisiana trying to help the feds out taking him in on a warrant as the feds IMO are still a few years away from really having legal precedent to regulate internet gambling.

gl

 

[3 Seconds]

Everyone can thank the political right (wrong) for for these moves. Clearly the crackdown is to appease the conversative voters & try to salvage the House of Reps in the upcoming elections, which they are going to lose control of, IMO.