Leach Allegations Debunked By BetOnSports

Published: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 Online-Casinos.com

LEACH ALLEGATIONS DEBUNKED BY BETonSPORTS EXEC

Email face-off arranged by Wall Street Journal

At last an industry personality with some facts and figures has been able to conduct a public debate with the would-be scourge of Internet gambling, Rep. James Leach. And judging by early reports, online gambling came off best.

David Carruthers, CEO of online gaming firm BETonSPORTS plc engaged in an interactive debate this week with U.S. Congressman Jim Leach on the latter's anti-online gambling allegations made in support of his latest proposal. The debate was hosted, and mediated, by the Wall Street Journal Online and was conducted over an e-mail exchange.

The Wall Street Journal subsequently carried the exchange in detail, pointing to its earlier online poll in which 85 percent of the more than 10 000 respondents voted against an online gambling ban in the USA.

Leach (R-Iowa) is a sponsor of a bill aimed at crippling the online gambling industry through the banking sector, the bill was marked up in a sub-committee earlier this month and referred to the full House Judiciary Committee for another hearing.

Carruthers and Leach debated the merits of the bill, which would use the banking industry to police online gambling sties by banning the use of credit cards, checks, and money transfers for Internet wagering transactions.

Leach got the debate started by arguing that Internet gambling sites "sweep dollars out of the U.S. into largely unknown, often criminal hands."

Carruthers responded by informing Leach that many of the same reasons he, and others, wish to prohibit the industry, are the exact same reasons that he is for regulation.

"Prohibiting online gambling would be catastrophic," he said. "Prohibiting the industry would have the exact opposite effect to what the congressman seeks. Prohibition would not stop online gambling, it would send it underground and leave the vulnerable unprotected."

The debate continued with Leach and Carruthers exchanging e-mails back and forth. Among some of the highlights of the debate was an open invitation from Carruthers for Leach to visit the BETonSPORTS corporate facility in San Jose, Costa Rica, or even sit down in Washington face-to-face to discuss the issue more, Leach declined the offer to visit Costa Rica saying that it would be "ethically dubious, if not illegal" for him to visit the company's operations.

The transcript of the entire debate is recommended reading, and can be found on a free section of the Wall Street Journal Online on the following link:

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114375000762012631-14PeRy_IGy_Ax75SChM_gejdynE_20070403.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

Early consensus from several industry observers reading the report was that Carruthers put over some very positive perspectives and exposed flaws in the politician's motivation and reasoning for the proposed legislation.