Just as fast as the industry seems to be growing, authorities are cracking down on illegal online casino gambling. Following suit, Turkey is cracking down and has just detained two members of Sportingbet. It is believed that Sportingbet has been involved in illegal online gambling.
The two being detained are of middle management within Sportingbet, along with around thirty other people in total who are being detained. The arrests were a result of two separate raids that took place in Istanbul. The names of those being held have not yet been released.
This is the second time that Sportingbet has been in the spotlight regarding illegal online gambling. In 2006 in New York, Sportingbet’s company chairman, Peter Dicks was arrested and made headlines. No charges were ever filed for that arrest in 2006, however. It’s hard to say if Sportingbet would be so lucky the second time around.
It is believed that the employees who were detained from Sportingbet are London based. They celebrating a holiday in Turkey and were not allowed to leave the country once they were apprehended. Sportingbet has maintained that they have not done anything outside of the law and would like the matter resolved quickly, but Turkey is holding strong on the issue.
“Turkish law seeks to make it illegal to be based anywhere in the world. Our interpretation is that Turkish law ends at the Turkish border,” said Andrew McIver, Chief Executive of Sportingbet. McIver also believes that the company could take bets from inside the country, as long as they did not conduct their operations or have any assets within the country.