any news on Peter Dicks

[robertg]

He was supposed to be back in New York court today for an extradition hearing, but I can't find any current news on the case. Any links or info is
appreciated.

[The Judge]

Ex-Sportingbet chairman's hearing postponed
The fate of Peter Dicks, former chairman of Sportingbet, the UK online gambling company, hung in the balance on Thursday, as a hearing about the state of Louisiana's request to extradite him from New York was postponed until Friday.

New York officials said the hearing had been delayed to give state officials more time to consider Mr Dicks' case.

George Pataki, governor of New York, and Eliot Spitzer, the state's attorney-general, were both involved in protracted deliberations over whether to approve Mr Dicks' extradition, according to state officials.

Kathleen Blanco, governor of Louisiana, this week issued a fresh request for New York to hand over Mr Dicks, who was arrested at JFK airport three weeks ago on a Louisiana warrant.

"We received the papers from Louisiana yesterday afternoon and then late last night we received legal arguments from Mr Dicks' lawyer," said a spokeswoman for Mr Pataki. "In order to complete a full review of the issues involved we have requested that the court date be pushed back until tomorrow."

The involvement of the most senior political and legal representatives of two US states underlines the sensitivity and importance of a case that is testing the exposure of foreign online gambling companies to US anti-gambling laws.

Louisiana is one of several US states that has laws prohibiting online gambling.

Arrest warrants were issued for Mr Dicks and three other Sportingbet representatives after Louisiana police placed a bet with the company as part of an investigation into online Bookmakers.

"We have to enforce our Louisiana laws, which clearly prohibits online gambling," said a spokeswoman for Ms Blanco. "If we do not enforce this law, online gambling would be completely unregulated and that would clearly be an expansion of gambling, which is unacceptable."

Defence lawyers have argued that Mr Dicks cannot be extradited to Louisiana under New York law because he was not in either state at the time of the alleged crime.

Mr Pataki withdrew the warrant needed for Mr Dicks' extradition two weeks ago because of doubts about the legitimacy of Louisiana's request.

This week's deliberations between Mr Pataki and Mr Spitzer are focused on whether that warrant should be reinstated.

The spokeswoman for Mr Pataki said the extradition request would be dismissed before Friday's hearing if New York chooses not to reinstate its warrant.

Mr Dicks was allowed to return to the UK on bail two weeks ago while the case was reviewed but ordered to return for this week's hearing.

Lawyers for Mr Dicks had hoped the extradition request would be dropped by Louisiana or dismissed by New York before this week's hearing.

But Barry Slotnick, lead defence lawyer, acknowledged that Louisiana had "dug in" over recent days. "They are not backing off," he said. "We're preparing our argument to rebut what Louisiana says."

A spokeswoman for Mr Pataki said that the governor's and attorney-general's involvement in the case was a normal part of their duties. "The Attorney-General is the state's lawyer," she said. "Whenever there is a situation where we are working with another state the Attorney-General acts as attorney."

Link to article

[robertg]

Thanks Judge,

somehow you always have the info and it is appreciated!
Don't you think this is a huge case for online gaming? If Sportingbet can win on this level, especially given the argument that the crime didn't occur in La or NY, therefore its not an extraditable offense, this has to be good news for the online gaming business and us.