V-C Chief's Meeting With Police Preplanned
Published: Saturday, January 13, 2007 Online-Casinos.com
V-C CHIEF'S MEETING WITH ISRAELI POLICE WAS PREPLANNED (Update)
Carlton clears the air on detention reports
Safely back in his Gibraltar headquarters, Victor Chandler group CEO Michael Carlton has issued a statement clarifying his widely reported "detention" by the authorities in Israel earlier this week.
In fact the meetings were prearranged says Carlton, commenting: "I traveled to Israel for a preplanned meeting with government ministers, at their invitation, regarding licensing arrangements in the country. Before leaving I was invited to spend two hours with the Israeli authorities answering their questions regarding online gambling in Israel,” he said, not detailing what the questions were.
Victor Chandler currently advertises in and accepts bets from Israel, although other operators do not, as gambling is overseen by a state-run monopoly there. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in December 2006, Israeli state prosecutor Eran Shendar decided to outlaw online gambling by private operators and police warned credit card companies that by processing transactions for operators they would be committing a felony offence.
Carlton said: “Israel is currently a fraction of the Victor Chandler business. However, we are keen to work with the authorities in Israel going forward and have already opened discussions with Knesset members.”
