Online Gambling Dicks Case Postponed Until Friday

SportingBet former chairman, Peter Dicks, from the UK had his US court case postponed until Friday after New York governor George Pataki, and state attorney general, Eliot Spitzer said Thursday they need more time to think about what do in the case.

The hearing Dicks is waiting on is in New York and the decision will let Dicks know whether he will or will not be extradited to Louisiana to be tried in a court there. Dicks was arrested in a JFK airport and has not been in Louisana in more than 20 years, so his lawyers argue that there is no way he could be tried for a crime in a state he has not been in.

Kathleen Blanco, governor of Louisiana, however, said this week that New York must hand over Dicks or else she fears the online gaming world will view it as a huge victory and thus continue to be run largely unregulated. Little does Ms. Blanco know, though, that online gambling is legal and highly regulated in the UK where Mr. Dicks ran his company.

"We have to enforce our Louisiana laws, which clearly prohibits online gambling," said a spokeswoman for Ms Blanco. "If we do not enforce this law, online gambling would be completely unregulated and that would clearly be an expansion of gambling, which is unacceptable."

Mr Pataki withdrew the warrant needed for Mr Dicks' extradition two weeks ago because of doubts about the legitimacy of Louisiana's request.

This week's deliberations between Mr Pataki and Mr Spitzer are focused on whether that warrant should be reinstated.

The spokeswoman for Mr Pataki said the extradition request would be dismissed before Friday's hearing if New York chooses not to reinstate its warrant.



2006-09-28