BetonSports Canary Could Start Talking About Former Employer: Microgaming

It's one of the biggest online gambling software providers and they also operate the 3rd biggest US-focused online poker room based on volume.  South African based Microgaming and its Prima Poker are said to be monitoring the BetonSports case closely.  That's because one of its former associates last week - on behalf of the company and its Board of Directors - plead guilty and will be telling all about defendants in the BetonSports case.

Clive Archer was once involved with Microgaming and this is bound to come up in one fashion or another as the US government works hard to take down a billion dollar industry. 

Archer was once an executive with Carmen Media, which managed a number of top Microgaming-powered brands, including River Belle and the Gaming Club.  Archer and the other officers have vowed to ensure that no stone remain unturned. 

Microgaming views US legalities on a state-by-state basis, selecting not to target locales whose specific laws make intrastate gambling illegal. 

Online gambling operator BetonSports plc. pleaded guilty to U.S. racketeering charges last Thursday and its officers including Mr. Archer have agreed to cooperate in a case against the company's founder and other co-defendants, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.

BetonSports admitted to a "pattern of racketeering acts," including mail and wire fraud, operating an illegal gambling business and money laundering, U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said in a statement.

The company agreed to supply witnesses and evidence against founder Gary Stephen Kaplan and other co-defendants in order to avoid further criminal prosecution, according to Hanaway, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri.

"This plea, combined with the terms of the civil injunction should put an end to the BetonSports illegal gambling empire," Hanaway said in her statement.

The news itself may be a blessing in disguise for some of the defendants, namely Gary Kaplan himself, who is widely believed to have had little influence over the company he founded in 1995 for the last two years of its existence. Likewise, his brother, Neil Kaplan, is reported to have left the operation only months after the four year investigation got underway.

Furthermore, the attorneys representing defendants in the BetonSports matter may have ample means of discrediting the current board of directors, none of which have been especially forthcoming over the past year. 

Of those indicted last July, only its former CEO, David Carruthers, was believed to have been employed by BetonSports when the indictment was handed down last July.  Carruthers, a British citizen detained while changing flights in Fort Worth, Texas, has maintained his innocence while serving house detention outside of St. Louis. 

Last week, David Carruthers sent a letter asking for individuals at the company’s former advisers to lobby the UK government, the EU and UK and European Members of Parliament on his behalf as part of his attempts to use the recent WTO decision as part of his defense.

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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com

Originally published May 29, 2007 9:29 am ET