Costa Rican sports books could cut off US gamblers

[micheal]

Online sports betting firms employing thousands of Costa Ricans could turn away U.S. gamblers after the arrest in Texas this week of a leading industry executive, but for now it remains business as usual.

A crusade by U.S. prosecutors against the $12 billion a year Internet betting industry may be enough of a headache for international bookies to give up the United States, their largest market.

On Monday, U.S. authorities detained David Carruthers, the Scottish chief executive of BETonSPORTS <BSS.L> as he changed planes in Dallas. BETonSPORTS was one of several individuals and companies facing charges of racketeering, conspiracy and fraud under an indictment.

"I think what you'll see is the public companies will stop offering services to Americans," Canadian sports book magnate Calvin Ayre, owner of Costa Rica-based Bodog sportsbook, told Reuters this week.

"We have enough business internationally outside the United States to keep going."

Costa Rica-based BETonSPORTS' Web site closed down following Carruthers' arrest, but other book makers remained open for business.

At the fifth-floor offices of Ayre's Bodog call center in San Jose this week, rows of clerks took wagers over the telephone from bettors calling from around the world.

Flanked by flat screen televisions broadcasting the New York Mets vs. the Cincinnati Reds, supervisors sat on an elevated platform at the front of the room, entering odds into computers.

Although online gaming is not explicitly illegal in the United States, the U.S. Justice Department says it is barred under the U.S. Wire Wager Act.

But hundreds of companies let gamblers in the United States use their credit cards to wager -- over the phone or online -- on everything from boxing to presidential elections.

Bodog floor manager Jerry Umana said Carruthers' arrest has had little impact among his call center employees, many of them university students attracted by hefty wages.

"We have a product to put out," he said. "We're not going to let it stop our level of operations."

Close to 200 companies employing thousands of people take bets over the telephone in Costa Rica, but the money involved always remains off-shore, said Eduardo Agami, head of the Costa Rican Association of Call and Electronic Data Centers.

Distancing the money from their telephone operators allows Costa Rican bookies to work under laws regulating call centers, leaving the betting element in a legal black hole.

BETonSPORTS founder Gary Kaplan, 47, who lives in Costa Rica, was also charged with 20 felony violations and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

source : reuters