So it looks like another top executive of an internet gambling company was arrested on Wednesday.
… Peter Dicks, 64, chairman of London-based Sportingbet PLC, was taken into custody by airport police after he arrived on an overseas flight at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. He was held on a criminal warrant issued by the state of Louisiana. After the arrest, Sportingbet asked the London Stock Exchange, where its stock is listed, to halt trading in its shares.
Uhm. This is the second such arrest is this summer. Everyone take a memo: if you run an internet gambling site, now might not be the best time to fly in to the US.
Latest Arrest Chips Away at Online Betting [LA Times]
This is bullshit.
I don’t know how to effectively express my outrage over this action by the US government.
Check out these links for background info;
http://www.nytimes.com
money.cnn.com
today.reuters.co.uk
http://www.businessweek.com
So basically we have a UK citizen, operating a UK business (sportingbetplc.com board) who the moment he steps foot into the USA is arrested, not for crimes he committed but for crimes committted by US citizens.
Oh and arrested under ambiguous Louisiana law, that defines all interstate gaming as illegal.
I cant wait for the chairman of the NY Times to be arrested on a visit to China because chinese citizens were reading copies of the NY Times on the internet.
Oh and as for visiting ‘unfriendly’ countries, how about if Castro started shooting american tourists he found in Cuba for ‘crimes of treason’ in carrying US dollars in their wallets?
This is insane America. When are you going to wake up and begin to be a good ‘world citizen’?
You cant just arrest people for ‘crimes against the state’ that dont even occur in your country……..isn’t that what terrorists do? Impose their will against the world at large.
I keep hoping I will wake up and the insanity will end? it’s like a bad dream.
It’s getting hard to tell who is the bad guys anymore.
http://deancollinsblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/peter-dicks-chairman-of-sportingbet.html
Dean