Online bookmaker Sportingbet Plc said its chairman, Peter Dicks, had been detained by the United States authorities, mirroring the detention in July of another online gambling CEO, David Carruthers, on racketeering charges.
Following the announcement of Dicks arrest, shares across the online gambling industry fell sharply: Leisure & Gaming Plc, which owns betting brands including VIPsports, declined 35%, to 48 pence in London. 888 Holdings Plc, the largest online casino operator, dropped 15.8%, to 144 pence. World Gaming dropped 30%, to 64.5 pence. The industry leader PartyGaming plunged as much as 19% before closing 9.8 percent lower at 105-3/4 pence.
Online gambling has become a $12 billion-a-year industry for companies including Gibraltar-based PartyGaming, which got more than four-fifths of its sales from the U.S. last year. Carruthers was indicted about a week after American legislators approved a measure to fight online gambling by restricting the flow of money to illegal gaming Web sites.
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