Bodog CEO unfazed by arrest of British gaming boss
Racketeering charges in U.S. not 'ominous' to Calvin Ayre
David Baines
Vancouver Sun
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
The arrest and detention of British Internet gaming executive David Carruthers in Texas on racketeering charges Sunday raises the question: Could Calvin Ayre be next?
Ayre is the 44-year-old founder of Bodog.com, a private Internet gaming company that is based in San Jose, Costa Rica, but also runs a Vancouver subsidiary called Riptown Media.
Ayre splits his time between San Jose and Vancouver, where he owns some valuable real estate assets, including several penthouse apartments and acreage in Langley.
Ayre has been playing a cat-and-mouse game with U.S. Justice Department officials, who insist it is illegal for offshore gaming operations to take bets from U.S. residents.
Last year, Bodog took $7.3 billion US in online bets, 95 per cent from Americans, and neither he nor his company paid a cent in U.S. income taxes.
On March 27, Ayre was featured on the cover of Forbes magazine as one of the world's 793 billionaires.
The article, entitled "Catch me if you can," portrayed Ayre as flaunting his business in the face of frustrated U.S. Justice Department officials.
FBI agents arrested David Carruthers, chief executive officer of BetonSports Plc, a publicly traded British company that owns several Internet sportsbooks and casinos, at the Ft. Worth, Tex., airport when he was changing planes en route to Costa Rica, where BetonSports has operations.
He was among 11 individuals and four companies that were indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Missouri on 22 counts of racketeering, conspiracy and fraud.
Other defendants include BetonSports founder Gary Kaplan, who is charged with causing his employees to take bets from undercover agents in St. Louis, and failing to pay excise taxes on $3.3 billion in wagers taken from U.S. residents. The Justice Department also seeks forfeiture of $4.5 billion and various properties from Kaplan and his co-defendants.
An arrest warrant was issued for Kaplan, who resides in Costa Rica. Carruthers, meanwhile, made a brief court appearance Monday in Ft. Worth. He was led into the courtroom wearing handcuffs, faded jeans and a lime-green T-shirt with the words "World Traveler" across the front. The judge ordered him held until a detention hearing Friday.
The indictment and ensuing arrests sent a chill through the global Internet gaming industry. Shares in many of the big gaming stocks, including BetonSports and PartyGaming Plc, plunged in value.
The implications for Bodog, if any, were not immediately evident, as it is a private company. Ayre insists there are none as his business is conducted in a different and quite lawful manner.
"At this point, the detention of a high-profile senior executive in the online gaming industry may appear to some as ominous for the online gambling industry, but that is not the case at all," he said in a release.
"The charges are specific to the person and company at issue, and have nothing to do with Bodog.com's current or previous business practices. Bodog.com, a privately held, Costa Rican-based company, has an innovative and different business model that allows us to run our entertainment enterprise within the laws set out in each of the jurisdictions where we conduct our business."
But it is not clear how the two companies differ. Both have been taking bets from U.S. residents over the Internet from Costa Rica. The Vancouver Sun asked the company to clarify this issue, but did not receive a response.
Ayre went on to say that, for Bodog, it's business as usual: "Our organization is quite confident the U.S. government's actions will have no impact on our operations," he said.
Ayre's brave words will be put to the test on Sunday, when Bodog's second annual Internet gaming marketing conference beings at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel.
The conference -- which is designed for people in the Internet gaming industry, as opposed to online gamblers -- features former NBA star Magic Johnson as keynote speaker and Ayre, described in promotional material as "the personification of the new American dream: as an online entrepreneur, jetsetter, industry leader, producer and philanthropist."
The Vancouver Sun was invited to attend the conference as a media participant, but after the newspaper signed up, Ayre unilaterally revoked its registration for referring to Ayre's prior run-in with the B.C. Securities Commission.
In 1996, Ayre was suspended from the B.C. stock market for 20 years for multiple offences relating to a Vancouver Stock Exchange promotion called Bicer Medical Systems Ltd. Ayre dismissed the suspension as "old news" even though it is still in effect.
"I am sure your readers would be much more interested to hear how Bodog has been aiding the Vancouver economy, of my extensive charitable endeavours in a number of countries or how I am changing the way digital entertainment companies operate," he said in a letter to The Sun.
"It is no wonder so many successful Canadians leave home if this is how they get treated by the home fans. Contrast how you cover me with how I am covered in the U.S."
But given Carruthers' unceremonious treatment in the United States, will Ayre dare to attend his own conference?
"The conference is definitely still on and Calvin is planning to attend," said Peter Epstein, who is handling public relations for the conference from his Los Angeles office.
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Found from clevfan and MW, thank you.
Racketeering charges in U.S. not 'ominous' to Calvin Ayre
David Baines
Vancouver Sun
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
The arrest and detention of British Internet gaming executive David Carruthers in Texas on racketeering charges Sunday raises the question: Could Calvin Ayre be next?
Ayre is the 44-year-old founder of Bodog.com, a private Internet gaming company that is based in San Jose, Costa Rica, but also runs a Vancouver subsidiary called Riptown Media.
Ayre splits his time between San Jose and Vancouver, where he owns some valuable real estate assets, including several penthouse apartments and acreage in Langley.
Ayre has been playing a cat-and-mouse game with U.S. Justice Department officials, who insist it is illegal for offshore gaming operations to take bets from U.S. residents.
Last year, Bodog took $7.3 billion US in online bets, 95 per cent from Americans, and neither he nor his company paid a cent in U.S. income taxes.
On March 27, Ayre was featured on the cover of Forbes magazine as one of the world's 793 billionaires.
The article, entitled "Catch me if you can," portrayed Ayre as flaunting his business in the face of frustrated U.S. Justice Department officials.
FBI agents arrested David Carruthers, chief executive officer of BetonSports Plc, a publicly traded British company that owns several Internet sportsbooks and casinos, at the Ft. Worth, Tex., airport when he was changing planes en route to Costa Rica, where BetonSports has operations.
He was among 11 individuals and four companies that were indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Missouri on 22 counts of racketeering, conspiracy and fraud.
Other defendants include BetonSports founder Gary Kaplan, who is charged with causing his employees to take bets from undercover agents in St. Louis, and failing to pay excise taxes on $3.3 billion in wagers taken from U.S. residents. The Justice Department also seeks forfeiture of $4.5 billion and various properties from Kaplan and his co-defendants.
An arrest warrant was issued for Kaplan, who resides in Costa Rica. Carruthers, meanwhile, made a brief court appearance Monday in Ft. Worth. He was led into the courtroom wearing handcuffs, faded jeans and a lime-green T-shirt with the words "World Traveler" across the front. The judge ordered him held until a detention hearing Friday.
The indictment and ensuing arrests sent a chill through the global Internet gaming industry. Shares in many of the big gaming stocks, including BetonSports and PartyGaming Plc, plunged in value.
The implications for Bodog, if any, were not immediately evident, as it is a private company. Ayre insists there are none as his business is conducted in a different and quite lawful manner.
"At this point, the detention of a high-profile senior executive in the online gaming industry may appear to some as ominous for the online gambling industry, but that is not the case at all," he said in a release.
"The charges are specific to the person and company at issue, and have nothing to do with Bodog.com's current or previous business practices. Bodog.com, a privately held, Costa Rican-based company, has an innovative and different business model that allows us to run our entertainment enterprise within the laws set out in each of the jurisdictions where we conduct our business."
But it is not clear how the two companies differ. Both have been taking bets from U.S. residents over the Internet from Costa Rica. The Vancouver Sun asked the company to clarify this issue, but did not receive a response.
Ayre went on to say that, for Bodog, it's business as usual: "Our organization is quite confident the U.S. government's actions will have no impact on our operations," he said.
Ayre's brave words will be put to the test on Sunday, when Bodog's second annual Internet gaming marketing conference beings at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel.
The conference -- which is designed for people in the Internet gaming industry, as opposed to online gamblers -- features former NBA star Magic Johnson as keynote speaker and Ayre, described in promotional material as "the personification of the new American dream: as an online entrepreneur, jetsetter, industry leader, producer and philanthropist."
The Vancouver Sun was invited to attend the conference as a media participant, but after the newspaper signed up, Ayre unilaterally revoked its registration for referring to Ayre's prior run-in with the B.C. Securities Commission.
In 1996, Ayre was suspended from the B.C. stock market for 20 years for multiple offences relating to a Vancouver Stock Exchange promotion called Bicer Medical Systems Ltd. Ayre dismissed the suspension as "old news" even though it is still in effect.
"I am sure your readers would be much more interested to hear how Bodog has been aiding the Vancouver economy, of my extensive charitable endeavours in a number of countries or how I am changing the way digital entertainment companies operate," he said in a letter to The Sun.
"It is no wonder so many successful Canadians leave home if this is how they get treated by the home fans. Contrast how you cover me with how I am covered in the U.S."
But given Carruthers' unceremonious treatment in the United States, will Ayre dare to attend his own conference?
"The conference is definitely still on and Calvin is planning to attend," said Peter Epstein, who is handling public relations for the conference from his Los Angeles office.
--------------------------------------------------
Found from clevfan and MW, thank you.
