US holds Sportingbet chairman

Sportingbet PLC, an online gambling company has reported that its chairman has been detained in the United States. Chairman Peter Dicks is the second manager of a British company to be held amid tightening up of online gambling. Earlier chief executive of BetOnSports PLC was arrested in U.S. on racketeering charges.

According to the company the chairman was in US on a non-Sportingbet business. A sharp sell-off in gaming stocks was reported after the announcement. The detention of Dicks could indicate a U.S. crack-down on companies that let U.S. residents gamble. A spokesman for the company refused to comment and declined to elaborate on the reasons for the arrest.

"This arrest highlights the U.S. Department of Justice is going after online gaming companies by arresting their board members," said a London analyst who declined to be named.

David Carruthers, the former chief executive officer of U.K. Web bookmaker Betonsports Plc was arrested two months ago and put behind bars for three months in July over alleged violations of U.S. gambling laws. Carruthers was detained in the U.S. while changing planes.

He was reportedly freed on a $1 million bond earlier in August. He is charged with crimes including racketeering and fraud. A temporary restraining order which required BetOnSports to suspend its Web sites for the US customers was also issued by a court after Carruthers arrest.

Talking about Dicks detention, Andrew Lee, an online gaming analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort in London said, “Unless the chairman is being held on charges unrelated to online gaming, we can probably assume the Department of Justice has an agenda against sports-betting companies that are using telephone lines to make bets.”

Sportingbet, which has a market value of $1.9 billion, immediately, asked for its shares, to be suspended pending further clarification of the situation. Its shares were already down by 2.1% in London trading.