UK would extradite?

[Vallerius]

I've read in a lot of articles yesterday and today that the UK government says it will not hesitate to extradite executives of online gambling companies to countries where they are charged with illegal gambling. The statement from Culture, Media and Sport Minister Richard Caborn that has been pasted into every article dealing with the subject is:

"People have to abide by the laws of particular countries. We will not acknowledge people who operate illegally."

Caborn apparently said this either during the international summit in the UK on Tuesday or at a press conference afterward. I wasn't there, so I'm not sure what sort of context this was said in, but most of the reporters make it sound as though the UK will hand over its citizens to foreign governments who say they offer illegal gambling services. Here's one such article: http://business.scotsman.com/media.cfm?id=1613922006

I would not be so quick to interpret this single quote as meaning the UK will submit any individual requested for extradition to the US though.

The UK has been very clear since passing its Gambling Act 2005 that it would not prevent its licensees from offering wagers to citizens of countries like the U.S. where the law on Internet gambling is not clear. It has had the attitude that its licensees would be held to the highest global standards for consumer protections for citizens of any country.

This was all before the U.S. passed the UIGEA, its meager attempt to clarify online gambling law in the country. A simple matter of fact that remains however is that the UIGEA does not make it illegal for Americans to gamble online. What is illegal is for onilne gambling companies to offer wagers to people located in America. But this is actually what has been the U.S. view toward online gambling all along. The definition of the Wire Act has not been expanded in the UIGEA, so there is still room for dispute as to whether the legislation can apply to casinos and poker.

But any rate, as I see it, after the UK Gambling Commission begins licensing online gaming in the fall of 2007 extradition should become a null issue. I imagine the UK will revisit (if it hasn't already) the policy of whether its licensees will be allowed to offer wagers to the US. If the UK tells its licensees yes, then it would be quite a dastardly thing if they later extradited individuals for activities they had earlier stated were perfectly fine. But if they tell their licensees they may not offer wagers to U.S. players then none will be foolish enough to try it. At any rate though, I anticipate that a lot of the first companies to apply and receive UK licensees will be the public companies that will not take US action even if British government allows them too.

I suppose I need to call DCMS and the Gambling Commission to find out how the new legislation has affected their view on the matter. I guess it would make diplomatic sense to forbid licensees from offering bets to the U.S. since the U.S. law does say that no company can offer unauthorized Internet gambling to its citizens. But then again, the UK is not subject to U.S. jurisdiction and the world trade court already believes U.S. policies are unjustly discriminatory.