Sportingbet (Paradise Poker) Says It Will Be Difficult to Carry On

[Busted_Flat]

These are quotes from Forbes on-line and are from this morning. I apologize if they have been posted elsewhere, but I am at work and don't have time to read all of the posts. However, these comments do seem significant to the future of Paradise Poker, which is one of my favorite sites.

London - Nigel Payne, the chief executive of internet gambling company Sportingbet, was probably not drawing on British irony when he said the U.K. government and European Union needed to support European companies in the face of America's "absurd protectionism." He meant it.

The public diatribe is understandable. This week got off to a miserable start for online gambling companies when Congress passed an unexpected bill late on Friday, outlawing credit card and money transfer companies from accepting payments to gambling websites. Shares crashed as it was clear the new law would effectively squeeze the $12 billion Internet gambling industry out if its most lucrative market. (See: "Online Bets Are Off")

Now Payne has told several media outlets that the industry has the technological capability to defy the law and continue to take American bets, but it would need tangible support from the British government and EU to do so. "If the government doesn't say that this is absurd protectionism, then it's very difficult to carry on," he told the BBC.

And the article goes on to say that the British government has no intention of standing up to the U.S.

Unfortunately for Payne, the British government has no intention of denouncing the legal stance of the United States. "These are companies that have to make their own business decision based on their own judgment and their own analysis of the legal position of different countries," said Anthony Wright, a spokesman for the U.K. Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

Link to Article

Bad news for those of us who play at Paradise.

[Wake up CALL]

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And the article goes on to say that the British government has no intention of standing up to the U.S.


[/ QUOTE ]

We don't tell the Englishmen how to drink their beer and they don't tell us how to make online gambling deposits, seems like an equitable trade.

[pushit7]

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