French Reach Out With the Long Arm of the Law

Filed in archive Poker Laws on October 23, 2007

An online gambling CEO NOT arrested in the United States but somewhere else?

With a report coming in from Pokernews.com , Unibet's CEO Petter Nylander was detained in Holland while attempting to travel back home to the U.K. on a French arrest warrant? Link to the entire story here

Dutch authorities raised the ire of many in the EU on Tuesday, when they arrested and detained Unibet CEO Petter Nylander. Nylander was boarding a plane in Holland, bound for his home in the U.K. when authorities pulled him aside and detained him on a French warrant.

The warrant was based on court filings from 2006. In these filings, the French Lottery Authority, Française des Jeux and horse betting monopoly PMU asserted that Unibet was in violation of the French National laws protecting lotteries and horse racing. The two laws cited had both been on the books for over 100 years, with the one law enacted in 1836, and the other in 1891.

The arrest outraged many in the industry, and

confused others. Nearly all court decisions in these matters in recent years, both in EU courts and French courts have ruled businesses not in violation of the laws, or more to the point have ruled that the law contradicts the EU treaty. As recently as July, a French court had overturned a prior decision, allowing an online horse racing based in Malta to offer online betting.

The French authorities seemed unfazed by the arrest, with one official calling it 'perfectly normal'.

This is not promising news with the attempts to legalize gambling on the internet, all (as far as I know) of these types of arrest have been made by the US when CEOs from these companies have traveled here. Their website seems to offer the gamut of gambling from Sports Betting to online poker and its stationed where such activity is legal.

For fans of online poker, you can bet the US Department of Justice will be watching carefully on the handling of the latest poker room head to be arrested.