Sportingbet's Peter Dicks set free

[Vallerius]

New York Governor Pataki refused to sign Louisiana's extradition request so former Sportingbet chairman Peter Dicks won't be facing charges in Louisiana or anywhere else in the U.S., assuming he stays out of the country. It's pretty safe to assume that Louisiana is going to keep its warrants against Dicks and the executives of Sportingbet and other online gambling companies in effect though. Louisiana really does have legislation specifically prohibiting online gambling so this isn't something executives should take likely. It seems the only reason Dicks was allowed to be set free is because Pataki and other New York officials felt the archaic language of their state's extradition laws (which date to the 1930s) are not sufficient to deal with offenses inolving the Internet and multiple states.

[matted]

I thought he was released 2 weeks ago?

[Vallerius]

Governor Pataki was not comfortable making a decision two weeks ago so he ordered a followup hearing for yesterday and said that Dicks could return to the UK in the meanwhile. Yesterday's hearing was postponed until today, and then today Dicks was allowed to go free without any more followup hearings.