Legalization, tax implications among subjects to be considered

The American Gaming Association (AGA) may be softening its stance against online gambling, and a bill before Congress could begin efforts to study legalization and regulatory options.

The 60-year-old monarch, whose gamble to follow in the footsteps of his father and revive the era of all-powerful kings crashed after a nationwide revolt, is now trying his luck at poker and blackjack on the Internet, the Jana Aastha weekly reported Wednesday.

A week after locally licensed Internet gaming company BetonSports was hit with the indictment of both its founder and its chief executive officer on racketeering charges, the company has announced that it has sacked arrested CEO David Carruthers.

In a statement released by BetonSports yesterday, it announced that it had terminated “the contract under which David Carruthers acted as CEO of the company” following his arrest in Texas last week Sunday on charges related to racketeering, tax evasion, conspiracy and fraud. Carruthers was arrested while trying to make a connecting flight from the United Kingdom to Costa Rica.

The former chief financial officer of Betonsports, the internet gambling firm at the centre of an FBI investigation, is claiming the firm owes him over £100,000 in unpaid fees and share options .

Richard Ainsworth-Morris was chief financial officer at the Costa Rica-based firm for six months in 2001. He was assigned the task of preparing the firm for flotation, and was given options in it which he said never materialised.

The sector and its investors need the US market, but operating there is a game of Russian roulette

It's not as if the warning signs weren't there. Laws were already in place and loopholes were being closed; Wall Street lawyers were advising clients not to get involved; and listing prospectuses spelt out the risks. So if you didn't know that online gambling in the US was at best a grey area and at worst outright illegal, you didn't really have much excuse.

But still, the arrest of BetonSports's chief executive sent shock waves through the industry. "We're not saying anything officially, for the obvious reasons," says a source close to a rival online operator. "But it has not been a great week."

WHEN David Carruthers was arrested last Monday night at Dallas Airport, panic spread through the online gambling industry. "Never mind the falling share price," many will have wondered, "am I going to go to jail?"

The indictment of the Glaswegian chief executive of BetonSports and his associates on charges of tax evasion, racketeering, fraud and conspiracy was a defining moment for an industry which has ridden its luck for years. More than £600m was wiped from the value of the sector as investors took fright.

Protecting American family values -- or the offline industry? Gambling is one of the great successes of online commerce. Americans bet nearly $6 billion online last year, roughly half the global total

As someone paid to have a keen appreciation of risk, David Carruthers must regret his choice of travel agent.

The chief executive of BetonSports was flying to Costa Rica, but no sooner had he touched down in Texas to change planes than he was arrested and later charged, along with 10 of his associates and various companies, with racketeering, fraud and conspiracy.

As PartyGaming reported a 49 percent boost to second quarter revenues on Friday, Chief Executive Mitch Garber said he was not concerned by the U.S. indictment of rival BETonSPORTS on charges of racketeering and tax evasion.

"The characteristics of the indictment are very far away from what PartyGaming does," Chief Executive Mitch Garber told a conference call.

"PartyGaming intentionally does not take U.S. telephone bets on sports," he added.