Israeli Cops Raid Online Gambling Media Office
Published: Tuesday, December 20, 2005 Online-Casinos.com
ISRAELI COPS RAID ONLINE GAMBLING MEDIA OFFICES
Allegations of accepting advertising for illegal online gambling sites
The Israeli business publication Globes Online reports that A raid took
place this week on the physical offices of public company and Internet websites
Walla! and Sport Line on suspicion that advertisements for illegal online
gambling sites had been accepted.
The computer crime department of the Israeli Police National Fraud Unit conducted
the raid, in which a search was carried out in order to collect evidence and possible
suspects and witnesses were interviewed.
The investigation was instigated by the Attorney General and the State Prosecutor’s
Office, which instructed the Police Investigations and Security Department to
act against advertising for gambling websites, particularly Internet advertising.
It was alleged that Walla! had advertised a number of gambling sites, such as
BeTheDealer Casino, Stan James and King Solomon Casino, and that Sport Line had
also advertised a gambling site.
Walla Communications advised the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange that it had no details
on the investigation. The company also noted that its revenue from the advertisement
of gambling sites was not significant.
The main shareholders in Walla Communications are Bezeq International (43 percent)
and Haaretz Publishing (27.7 percent). Walla earned an NIS 8.1 million profit
on NIS 54.2 million in revenue in January-September 2005.
It is not known whether any prosecutions are contemplated by the authorities.
