As Betonsports faces meltdown, shareholders in the online gambling firm are considering taking legal action against the company's advisers - Evolution Securities and Baker Tilly.

The company was brought to the London stock market two years ago, but institutional investors are unhappy that the history of Betonsports founder Gary Kaplan was not made clear in the company's offer document.

US government lawyers say they will continue prosecuting BetOnSports, even though the British-based internet gambling company is shutting down its operations that take bets from American customers.

Meanwhile US Attorney Catherine Hanaway’s office approved conditions for the release of London-based BetOnSports’ former chief executive David Carruthers, according to his lawyer, Scott Rosenblum.

Costa Rica's online gambling companies said Friday they will lobby the government to remain open despite the closure of BetOnSports PLC because of legal problems in the United States.

BetOnSports, or BoS, the Central American country's largest online gambling company employing nearly 2,000 people, said Friday that it was shutting down.

But there are more than 200 other online gambling firms still in operation and employing a total of 10,000 people in Costa Rica, where the industry is unregulated.

ONLINE gaming firm BetOnSports, which removed its Scots-born chief executive from his job following his detention in Texas last month on racketeering charges, today said it was closing down its Stateside business.

The company told the London Stock Exchange it would cease operations in Costa Rica and Antigua, where its US-focused operations are based, because they were no longer viable amid a restraining order on the business and the charges faced by former boss David Carruthers.

Online gaming group PartyGaming has expanded its non-US presence and moved into internet sports betting with the purchase of Gamebookers for €102m (£70m).

A PartyGaming spokesman said the cash deal would bring sports betting expertise in the shape of 90 Gamebookers staff and the opportunity to sell its PartyPoker and PartyCasino games to over 50,000 active Gamebookers customers.

The former chief executive of online bookmaker Betonsports has pleaded not guilty to racketeering and other charges in the US.

David Carruthers was arrested as part of a US move to tackle internet gaming.

Mr Carruthers, 48, was ordered to be held while a bail arrangement, based on a $1m (£539,000) bond, was worked out.

EMBATTLED online bookmaker Betonsports once shared the same address, technical support and solicitor as a company linked to New York’s notorious Bonanno crime family.

The company, Safe Deposit Sports (SDS), was part of an illegal gambling ring that netted millions for the Bonannos, one of New York’s five Mafia families, according to US prosecutors. SDS shared an address, technical support and a solicitor based in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, with the British firm.

The Irish chief executive of an online wagering firm, which takes sports and financial wagers from the US, said it has taken legal advice and believes the US authorities will not hinder its continuing operations in Dublin.

John Delaney, chief executive of Trade Exchange Network, which includes sister companies Trade Sports and Intrade in a business park in west Dublin, said it will continue to accept bets from US citizens.

Efforts to move a House-passed measure through the Senate have run into opposition from lobbyists representing casino owners and horse- and dog-racing interests in recent days. Some Republican senators have broken ranks and placed "holds" on it, the sources said.