Breaking news late Friday is that French authorities have detained
two senior Austrian gambling executives for questioning on alleged
gaming law violations in France.
The major Vienna-listed better group Bwin’s co-chief executives
Manfred Bodner and Norbert Teufelberger were arrested whilst on a
business trip relating to the group's sponsorship of AS Monaco football
club, a company spokesman said Friday afternoon, adding that a hearing
was scheduled for a Nice court Saturday morning.
Trading on Bwin's shares has been suspended in Vienna.
News on the arrests was sparse as we went to press, and the situation
is being monitored.
Adding to the bad news in Europe, reports are emerging that Bavaria
has become the third German state to ban Bwin from taking wagers on
sports bets.
Update: Bwin joint managing directors Manfred Bodner and Norbert
Teufelberger were arrested at the training center of AS Monaco, a
first division soccer club where they were scheduled to hold a news
conference, a police official revealed. BWin has links to several
first division clubs, and the company is allegedly violating French
gaming laws, unidentified police and judicial officials said.
The AS Monaco center is located in France's Alpes-Maritime region,
near Nice, and ten or more police officers took part in the arrests,
which happened in front of startled sports journalists. The executives
were questioned in the changing-rooms for some 30 minutes before they
were taken to a police station in Nice last night.
Judge Jean-Marx Cathelin of Nanterre, near Paris, authorized the arrests.
The judge has been investigating alleged illegal gambling, lotteries,
advertising illegal lottery advertising and illicit horse betting
since November 2005 after the French state gambling monopoly Française
des Jeux (FdJ) filed a lawsuit against BWin and other online bookmakers.
The judge opened a formal inquiry into the claims that online bookmakers
have organized“illicit gambling” and “the publicity
of an illicit activity”, according to a judicial source.
Depending on a hearing scheduled for today (Saturday) the two executives
could be placed under investigation - a step short of being actually
charged - for allegedly violating French laws which prevent online
gaming and advertisements from companies other than the two which
hold a monopoly there, the Francaise des Jeux, which conducts the
lottery, and the PMU which conducts bets for horse races.