BetOnSports site shut down

BetOnSports site shut down

UK online gaming boss nabbed

Fort Worth, Texas - An offshore sports-betting operation targeted by US prosecutors shut down its website on Tuesday night, a day after a federal judge ordered the company to stop letting Americans place wagers.
BetOnSports plc said it was temporarily stopping all transactions while it reviewed the situation.

Earlier on Tuesday, the site had appeared to be operating normally, offering bets on Major League baseball and season-opening college football games.

The company's founder, Gary Stephen Kaplan, the biggest target in the indictment, was somewhere in Costa Rica. He had nothing to say about the case, according to a spokesperson.

Trading of the company's shares was suspended in London on Tuesday. They fell as much as 24% on Monday following news that the company's CE, David Carruthers, had been arrested and closed down 17% at 122.50p (US$2.24).

On Monday, federal officials unsealed a 22-count indictment that charges 11 people and four companies with conspiracy, racketeering and wire fraud in taking sports bets from US residents. Authorities said BetOnSports falsely claimed that internet and phone wagering on sporting events was legal and licensed.

Five of the 11 individuals were arrested, including Carruthers, who remained in custody in Fort Worth pending a detention hearing on Friday. Carruthers was arrested Sunday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport as he waited for a connecting flight to Costa Rica.

The justice department is seeking the forfeiture of $4.5bn, plus several cars, recreational vehicles and computers from the defendants. Prosecutors convinced a federal judge in St. Louis to order BetOnSports to stop accepting bets placed from within the US.

BetOnSports hesitated for a full day before shutting down, however. A company spokesperson, Kevin Smith, had said attorneys were deciding what to do next.

Americans accounted for virtually all of the company's business until recently, when it began aggressively courting bettors in Asia.

Even if BetOnSports shuts down permanently, there are plenty of sites to take its place. Costa Rica has become a haven for Caribbean online sports books and casinos in the past decade because of its light approach to regulation, experts said.

In a celebrated case from 2000, prosecutors won a conviction against Jay Cohen, a US citizen who ran an operation in Antigua that took sports bets from Americans over the internet. He was sentenced to 21 months in prison.

But the wire law doesn't cover other types of casino betting, a federal appeals court in New Orleans ruled. That has left some doubt about whether prosecutors can shut down poker and other casino games that target American players, Cabot said.

fin24.co.za