SWEDISH SEQUEL TO POKER RAIDS

2 October 2007

Imprisonment is a real risk for poker hosts


Swedish press reports this week present a sequel to an earlier InfoPowa story regarding the arrest of Swedish hosts at a poker tournament in March this year.

Six people were arrested and charged in a police raid on the Grebbestad, Sweden tournament, billed as the European Poker Challenge ....and if convicted they could be sentenced to up to four years in jail. Police claim that some 700 people had bought in to the tournament for Euro 250 each.

The police, and local prosecutor Linn Scholander, have classified the event as illegal, citing the need for an official permit which apparently the organisers did not possess.

Press reports last week indicate that two people in charge of the event, two people from an unidentified gaming company co-hosting the tournament and two people responsible for renting out the Grebbestad conference centre for the occasion have been charged under Swedish gambling laws. The trial has been scheduled for November and will probably be held in the nearby city of Uddevalla.

"This is one of the largest cases of its kind," Scholander told Swedish newspaper GöteborgsTidningen.

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