Israel Police National Fraud Unit detectives yesterday detained for questioning Victor Chandler CEO Michael Carlton on suspicion of organizing and managing illegal gambling in Israel. The detectives arrived at his hotel room, and questioned him for two hours. He cooperated with the police. Carlton is a British citizen who resides in Gibraltar.
Victor Chandler has a webpage in Hebrew, although the company’s services are overseas.
At the end of the questioning, the police asked Carlton to deposit a guarantee ensuring his presence in Israel for future questioning, but his attorneys refused on the grounds that gambling from overseas is not a crime. Judge Abraham Heiman ordered that Carlton be allowed to leave Israel, and set a hearing for today at which a representative of the State Prosecutor would appear. The judge will rule whether a gambling website that operates legally in its country of origin and which targets Israelis violates Israeli law.
The State Prosecutor’s representative who appeared for the hearing wrote an opinion saying that online gambling is illegal, but refused to submit it to the judge. The judge said he would hand down his decision in 14 days.
Carlton came to Israel to participate in a Knesset debate on online gambling held on Tuesday by the sports lobby chaired by MK Ronit Tirosh (Kadima). Tirosh has initiated a private members bill on the subject, which will impose heavy fines on credit card companies that cooperate with gambling websites and on websites that advertise illegal gambling sites.
Knesset legal advisor Adv. Nurit Alstein forbade Carlton from attending the Knesset debate on the grounds that the Knesset could not permit the attendance of a gambling website operator that is banned under Israeli law.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on January 11, 2007
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2007