SAN FRANCISCO -- Americans continue...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Americans continue to gamble in record numbers online, on the contrary executives of the offshore operations that take those bets are exercising caution weeks after undivided of their peers was arrested in the United States.

The trepidation of online-betting executives underscores growing make anxious that the U.S. government could target more offshore firms after essentially giving the industry a clear pass for several years, gambling person specially versed s say.

Operators "are playing a wait-and-see policy to descry what the feds manage to pin in succession [indicted gaming site BetOnSports.com]," said Simon Holliday, a partner at Global Betting and Gaming Consultants in Britain. "Although the sports main division s give the impression they are not too make uneasyed I don't see them rushing to be in the U now."

The actions by way of some gaming execs hardly constitute a self- imposed shutdown of about 2,300 gaming sites worldwide. on the contrary they reflect an undercurrent of relate to especially for sports-betting sites, gambling quicks say.

London-based Ladbrokes, the world's biggest bookmaker, last week said it is reviewing plans to take bets from Americans forward its gaming sites, something it generally does not. It cited uncertainties in the U market.

FORMER CEO ARRESTED

Online gamer Bodog.com canceled a marketing colloquy in Las Vegas this month shortly after the arrest of David Carruthers, the former CEO of BetOnSports.com. Carruthers was charged with violating the 1961 Wire Act. BetOnSports has stopped taking U bets, a majority of its business.

"Any executive that has anything to do with online gaming, no matter in what way minor, has got to be apprehensive about setting lower part in the United States," Bodog.com CEO Calvin Ayre said in an e-mail. Bodog is based in Costa Rica.

Established offshore operators, so as PartyGaming, that have freshly acquired sports-betting sites are emphatic in saying that they won't take U bets.

"The Justice Department is waging a war of intimidation, and it is working in boundarys of scaring some operators," says Nelson Rose a professor at Whittier Law drill

Before Carruthers, the last significant arrest of an offshore Internet gaming executive was Jay Cohen. In 2001 he was sentenc to 21 month in federal prison.

POKER SITES NOT AS WORRIED

Officials at poker sites aren't as nervous, because the Justice Department has not pursu actions against them as vigorously as sports operators, Rose and others say. PokerStars.com, among others, landlorded events at the World Series Of Poker in Las Vegas in early August, shortly after Carruthers' arrest.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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