More Costa Rican Online Gambling Lay-Offs
Published: Thursday, January 04, 2007 Online-Casinos.com
MORE COSTA RICAN LAY-OFFS
This time its BetUS sending out pink slips
Dozens of Costa Rican employees have been laid off by one of the online gambling industry's larger companies, BetUS.com, according to a report from sportsbook portal Gambling911 this week, which suggests that the company is the latest group to significantly downsize its Costa Rica operations. Bodog.com announced similar plans last month.
Costa Rica's economy, in which the offshore gambling sector is an important element, sustained damage when BetonSports with close to 1 500 employees shut down during the summer following the arrest of its CEO on US soil and the subsequent passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
The Costa Rican online gambling industry is believed to employ well over 5 000 people, 911 reports. The sector is the Central American nation's third largest industry after telecommunications and tourism.
Operators have expressed the fear that the Costa Rican government may not be sufficiently committed to protecting the industry from extra-jurisdictional actions initiated by an aggressively anti-online gambling US Justice Department.
BetUS.com maintains a marketing office in Vancouver, and there are unconfirmed reports that the company may soon open a new call centre in Panama, Antigua or Curacao (Netherlands Antilles).
A conference call ended this afternoon with the layoff of several dozen employees.
The American NFL (National Football League) has reportedly sent BetUS.com a cease and desist order regarding the use of certain images in advertisements and on the BetUS.com website.
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