Saturday, January 06, 2007

Dozens of Costa Rican employees have been laid off by one of the online
gambling industry's larger companies, BetUS.com, according to a report from
sportsbook portal Gambling911 this week, which suggests that the company is
the latest group to significantly downsize its Costa Rica operations.
Bodog.com announced similar plans last month. Costa Rica's economy, in which
the offshore gambling sector is an important element, sustained damage when
BetonSports with close to 1 500 employees shut down during the summer
following the arrest of its CEO on US soil and the subsequent passage of the
Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. The Costa Rican online gambling
industry is believed to employ well over 5 000 people, 911 reports. The
sector is the Central American nation's third largest industry after
telecommunications and tourism. Operators have expressed the fear that the
Costa Rican government may not be sufficiently committed to protecting the
industry from extra-jurisdictional actions initiated by an aggressively
anti-online gambling US Justice Department. BetUS.com maintains a marketing
office in Vancouver, and there are unconfirmed reports that the company may
soon open a new call centre in Panama, Antigua or Curacao (Netherlands
Antilles). A conference call ended this afternoon with the layoff of several
dozen employees. The American NFL (National Football League) has reportedly
sent BetUS.com a cease and desist order regarding the use of certain images
in advertisements and on the BetUS.com website.