2000 BetonSports Staff To Get Severance Pay

Published: Friday, August 18, 2006 Online-Casinos.com

2 000 BETONSPORTS EMPLOYEES TO GET SEVERANCE PAY

Management assures Costa Rican authorities that dismissed employees will be paid this week

The tragic side of the US Department of Justice's prosecution of BetonSports (see earlier Online-Casinos.com and InfoPowa reports) was in evidence this week as up to 2 000 dismissed Costa Rican and Antiguan employees were assured that they would receive severance pay from the company, hopefully this week.

According to the newspaper AM Costa Rica, a spokesman for the Ministerio de Trabajo said that inspectors visited the offices of the online sportsbook and were told by a manager that an agreement was reached with employees that they would be paid this week.

As many as 2,000 persons lost jobs when the company bowed to a U.S. court order and shut down its gambling operations. These were not only persons who took bets over the telephone or on the computer but administration clerks, maintenance specialists and security personnel.

BetonSports has claimed that it is trying to work through a payment schedule to return money to depositors as required by the US court order, which effectively blocked up to 80 percent of the company's business. One of the obstacles has been getting the cooperation of e-cash processors which suspended business when the company had to close its site to US players, and suspended trading of its shares on the London stock exchange.