Latest On Arrest Of Sportingbet Chairman
Published: Friday, September 08, 2006 Online-Casinos.com
ARREST OF SPORTINGBET CHAIRMAN (Latest)
Executive detained on a Louisiana warrant of arrest for online gambling
As we went to press this week more details were starting to emerge on the arrest late on Wednesday night of Sportingbet plc's non-executive chairman, Peter Dicks (64).
The British businessman is in detention following his arrest at Kennedy International Airport on arrival aboard a flight from Britain a spokesman for the U.S.district attorney for Queens, Kevin Ryan told reporters.
He said that Customs officials, performing a routine name check around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, discovered that Dicks had an outstanding warrant issued by the Louisiana State Police Gaming Enforcement Division. Police officers with the Port Authority, which runs the airport, took Dicks into custody, where he remained Thursday awaiting arraignment in a state court.
The Port Authority confirmed Dicks's detention with spokesperson Pasquale DiFulco saying: "We were acting as the middle man. We were informed that Mr Dicks was wanted on an out-of-state warrant." Dicks was expected to be extradited to Louisiana to face state rather than federal charges.
Ryan said the July 12 warrant charged Dicks, who lives in London, with gambling by computer, which is punishable as a felony by up to a year in prison or a fine of up to $25 000.
Senior Trooper Dwight Robinette Jr., a spokesman for Louisiana State Police said Louisiana authorities intend to bring Dicks back to stand trial in St. Landry Parish, where the warrant for his arrest was signed. Robinette said more arrest warrants have been issued in connection with the case but he declined to provide more information. He said authorities in January launched an investigation into the online gambling industry that involved Sportingbet.
He would not say if other online gambling companies have been targeted by Louisiana authorities.
Shares in the company were suspended by the London Stock Exchange at Sportingbet’s request, but as news of the arrest reached an already nervous online gambling share market in London, related stocks headed south.
Dicks is the second executive of a British Internet sports-betting company to be held in the U.S. (see previous Online-Casinos.com and InfoPowa reports) David Carruthers, former chief executive officer of BetOnSports PLC, was arrested in July. The company fired Carruthers, who remains under house arrest in the St. Louis area awaiting trial, and closed its U.S. Web sites.
The founder of Abingdon PLC, a private equity firm, Dicks is also a director at Nasdaq-listed Polar Technology Trust PLC and Standard Microsystems Corp., and has been non-executive director at Sportingbet since 2000. He is also chairman of Daniel Stewart Securities Plc.
Sportingbet plc, which also owns the Paradise Poker brand, has more than 2.5 million customers and an annual turnover of more than $1.2billion (GBP 630 million).
Sportingbet was in the Las Vegas news earlier in the week when a company billboard which featured a transparent box containing $100 000 in one dollar notes was raided and $30 000 taken. Local police have since located much of the loot in an abandoned car.
Discussing The Dicks arrest, Andrew Lee, an online gaming analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort in London, told Bloomberg: "Unless the chairman is being held on charges unrelated to online gaming, we can probably assume the Department of Justice has an agenda against sports-betting companies that are using telephone lines to make bets."
Reacting to the news of the arrest, PartyGaming stock fell as much as 22.5 pence to 94.75 pence in London and was down 6.6 percent despite announcing good results. Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG, an Austrian online bookmaker, slid 12 percent in Vienna, rebounding from a drop of as much as 19 percent.
Leisure & Gaming Plc, which owns betting brands including VIPsports, dropped 31 percent in London. 888 Holdings Plc, the largest online casino operator, slid 14 percent.
Online gambling stocks showed similar volatility when the BetonSports CEO, David Carruthers was arrested in July but prices made a come-back as the market settled down.
