In the U.S., state governments are now ramping up their efforts to place facilitators of illegal gambling behind bars. Late Wednesday night, Peter Dicks, the chairman of Sportingbet, which offers
online sports betting, was arrested in New York by Port Authority officials upon his arrival at JFK. His arrest comes seven weeks after BetOnSports Chief Executive David Carruthers was arrested
during a layover in Dallas, on charges of taking illegal bets from American consumers. Both companies trade on the London stock exchange. Dicks' arrest comes at the behest of the Louisiana State
Police, which issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with an investigation into the activities of online casinos. Sportingbet halted the trading of its stock soon after learning about the
arrest. Legal experts, industry analysts and executives were all shocked by the news, thinking the U.S. government's law enforcement effort was aimed at one company, BetOnSports. An executive at
Internet Gaming News told the
Times that the obvious lesson here is that executives of online casinos should not visit the U.S. and risk arrest. Understandably, news of the arrest sent
shares of Internet gambling casinos tumbling in London. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. In much of the rest of the world, online gambling isn't illegal, yet Americans account for
about half of all online gambling revenues. This is an established industry that the U.S. government is challenging. Last year, some $12 billion was spent at online casinos. Betting on sports over the
Internet is clearly illegal in the U.S., but it's still unclear to legal experts whether betting on blackjack and other games is, too. Should states be able to regulate Internet gambling--an activity
that crosses state and national borders? Probably not.
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