PARADISE BET LICENCE SUSPENDED
25 December 2009
Investigation ongoing into the affairs of
land and online bookie
The UK Gambling Commission has announced the suspension
of its licence to Paradise Bet Limited, a Hounslow
bookie firm that also operates websites such as
ParadiseBet.com and Bet 1128.
The suspension is
whilst a review under section 116 of the Gambling Act
2005 takes place as part of an ongoing Commission
investigation.
The Commission will make no
further comment until the investigation is complete, but
on December 3rd the publication BNet reported that the
assets of a London-based online betting company had been
frozen by enforcement authorities in Italy as part of a
police operation to break up a major mafia gang.
"Paradise Bet, a company licensed by the UK's Gambling
Commission, has been linked to a three-year
investigation into the activities of the Parisi clan,
whose members are accused of attempted murder, drug
trafficking, loan-sharking, interfering with the bidding
process for public contracts and money laundering," BNet
reported.
The report goes on to reveal that local
politicians and businessman in the southern Italian city
of Bari, where Paradise Bet lists an operating office,
were believed to be among 74 people arrested by Italian
officials, along with the 48-year-old head of the clan,
Savino Parisi.
Police also seized 227
properties, 680 accounts, 61 luxury cars, nine stables
and 71 horses, believed to be trotting horses, and 35
businesses said to be worth around GBP 200 million in a
operation codenamed 'Domino'. The newspaper The
Telegraph also reported on the case, revealing that
Italian officials were aided in the operation by
Britain’s Serious and Organised Crime Agency.
"Paradise Bet Ltd, of Hounslow in Middlesex, was granted
a casino and general betting licence in April 2007," the
Bnet article reveals. "The group financial statements
for Paradise Bet Ltd from the year ended March 31, 2008,
state the business made a loss in 2008 of GBP 1.6
million from turnover of GBP 105 million. The previous
year the business made a profit of GBP 336 000 from
turnover of GBP 108 million."
BNet reported that
the company was unknown to the Remote Gambling
Association, which represents the major online betting
operators in Europe, but its managing director Clive
Hawkswood told the publication that the seizure of the
company was "not good news".
"The fact that they
are licensed through the UK, assuming these things are
proved, is not good news for anyone," he said.
"There are clearly lots of people opposed to gambling
generally who latch on to this sort of thing and one of
our reasonable lines is that if you regulate the
activity, that's the way you deal with this problem.
"No regulatory system is foolproof but we will have
to know a lot more to see whether the Gambling
Commission might have done anything to pick up on this.
"I assume the Italians will be contacting the
Gambling Commission for evidence."
Online Casino News Courtesy of
Infopowa
More news here.
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