CAP SPOKESMAN ON BARCELONA BUST (Update)

10 October 2008

Tournament organisers went to some length to ensure legality, says spokesman

Last week's police bust of a freeroll poker tournament designed to entertain affiliate marketers attending a conference in Barcelona (see previous InfoPowa report) was the subject of comment from the organisers, the Casino Affiliate Programs team as the week ended.

Spokesmen said that the Spanish undercover police raid on the fun, free roll event - dubbed the Affiliate Series of Poker - had taken the organisers by surprise as considerable care had been taken to ensure that Spanish legal requirements were respected.

CAP had made every effort to abide by the local Spanish laws, with legal representatives clearing all legal issues prior to the event and making it clear that it was a private freeroll-style tournament that was not open to the public.

"We don't put these tournaments on without permission, which is exactly why we have a specific registration system and a number of checks that affiliates go through to gain the password," said Alex Pratt on behalf of CAP. "This is on top of a number of other components to ensure we run an event that is completely legal."

"We obviously checked on Catalan and Spanish law prior to this event. The issue at this point seems to have arisen from a little-publicised change in Catalan law that occurred within the past year."

No arrests were made and fines levied by the Spanish authorities following the raid were minimal, according to representatives from CAP.

CAP has decided to resume this year's ASOP tournament in an online format with additional compensation and rewards being offered to the players to make up for the inconvenience.

"This unfortunate event does nothing to detract from the prestige of the ASOP tournament," added Pratt. "We will ensure that all participants can resume their games in an online format, and as a gesture of goodwill, we are increasing the prize pool for the online event."

CAP points out that police raids are not uncommon in poker, especially in cities in both Northern America and Europe where it is illegal for the organisers to benefit from a rake.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa