Victor Chandler CEO Returns to London After Israeli Arrest
The chief executive of bookmaker Victor Chandler was detained in Israel for two hours Thursday then later released following inquisition by Israeli authorities.
Michael Carlton allowed to return via London to the company’s headquarters in Gibraltar.The arrest is the latest in a worldwide crackdown against internet gaming sites that has seen executives of gambling companies targeted by authorities in several countries.
Gambling in Israel, like much of Europe, is a monopoly controlled by a state-run gaming board.
However, Victor Chandler set out last year to challenge that and has enjoyed success in the country, according to reports in the Independent.
In an interview with the Racing Post last year Victor Chandler, who owns the company, said Israel had rapidly become its second-biggest market.
The company launched an aggressive marketing drive in the country, with billboard advertising a common sight in many Israeli cities. It also runs a Hebrew website in an attempt to draw in punters.
Mr Carlton has compared the 92 per cent that the company returns to gamblers unfavourably with the returns offered by the Israeli monopoly, the Independent further reported.
Israel has adapted a hard line attitude towards online gambling facilitators in recent months.
Last month, Major General Yohanan Danino, head of the Police Investigations and Intelligence Unit, had notified Interlogic, which operates the Play 65 internet site, that both the police and the attorney general consider the operation of a gambling site for backgammon games a criminal offence.
The official warned the company that it must cease to allow players on the site to gamble real money on the results of the game, even though the game of backgammon itself, or gambling with virtual money, is not prohibited.
Victor Chandler CEO Returns to London After Israeli Arrest