In fact 888.com, has had all it's directors arrested, and extradited to Virginia to face charges for telephone betting fraud, as were a number of other gaming sites, one of the escapees was Mark Blandford of Sportingbet.com, ( he was arrested in New York, and was released, as New York for some reason had not ratified the extradition treaty that all other states had done so, some timerbefore, I personally believe that some one was given a backhander, but who is the question ? stick arouind I have been following this whole businerss fior some time now and know where he lives ( Costa ica ) and his current business dealings in Birmingham, England, where he hjas recentlyn purchased the Rainbow casino for £4M and he is in vested in a multi platform business that allows all bookmakers in Britain, to use incompatible software, that allows for this to be linked to access all forms of betting i.e. computer, telephones, etc, even between branfs of telephones with mixed capabilities ), this company ( Sportingbet.com, ), was at one time valued n the A.I.M. ( alternative investment market ), at a figure of £6 billion, and slumped to a value of 12p a share, whereupon Mark Blandfiord, and his fellow diorectors, who had incidentally, failed to repeat a warning concerning a posible risk of prosecution for illegal telephone gambling, was in the offing, from American authorities, cashed in his shares, as did other directors, at a guaranteed sum of £2.45p a share netting him personally a small fortune of £26.2Million, others were not so lucky in this arena, I will confine my remarks here to a brief overview of the entire scummy happenings, but will give a link to other more direct articles from the financial sections of British newspapers that make very interesting reading .

Lets start with 888 holdings ltd, Avi and Aharon Shaked founded it, took cash and stepped aside, they banked £104 million, while the other main backer, the Ben-Yitzhak family, took out £34 million, The chief executive, of 888.com, Scotsman John Anderson, who went to work for the Shakeds, after meeting them, while building a hotel in Tel Aviv, cashed in £1.7 million, in freee shares at the same time as the companie's float, He has now left the company

The online bunch are an eclectic group, Ahron Shaked, dreamed up what became 888 Holdings, on a visit to a Monte Carlo's famous casino, light relief from attending a dentists conference, in town.

It is true to say that the owners and directors were like a group of gamblers, busted by police, in a raid, they all, fled for the exit, at the first chance thay got, practically trampling themselves in their hasrte to0 get away, they KNEW, that the only way they could make money, was by listing on the stock exchange, ( Martin Sones of city spread betting firm, Worldspreads said, " Luckily for them, investors who had put money in, had not learnt from the last internetcrash It meant that diorectors could take the monmey and run".) In fact, nearly 80% of all profits were from the American markets, one thing executives seem to have in common, is that they had a skill ( judging from their boards of directors involved, came from all the top legal firms and banking institutes and the insurance world ), in playing the markets, especially the great London Stock Exchange, ( what Phylias T Barnum, in America, would have called suckers ), and true to form they hired top European bankers and PR companies, glossed over problems, and avoided mentioning the fact that none of the top US banks had been involved in this ( small mercies indeed, in view of what was yet to come, in the housing casino, they had created worldwide ), Goldman-Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, ( normally a big player in market flotations, in London, never even touched this one ),

The People involved were, and still are, in an ongoing prosecution, in America, the names are...

PartyGaming,

888,

BetonSports, ( The only American run operation ),

Sportingbet.com ( Mark Blandford, the escapee from American justice, owner of Double Diamond gaming, and a recent purchaser of The Rainbow casino in Edgbaston Birmingham, England, where he has, despite promises to keep all staff on, even as late as two days ago on the 25th of April, just issued notices of redundancy, to all staff there, and plans on reopening in December of this year, and what a load of merchant B@nkers he has got, now and before, working for him, and resident by his escape, in San Jose, Costa Rica, although if the Americans police forces or District Attorneys, ever extract their extraneous digit from their anal orifice, I hope for not much longer, by the way, this is a perfect way to launder money the ownership of a cash rich business is it not ? and just in passing, the New Yorkers surely, must have passed this extradition treaty, every other state has signed, before, into law or is it time to ask which DA is on the take, and backhanding what politicians here ? ),

etc, never involved the American banks, even with fees on offer, of staggeringly large amounts. running into millions.

The Europeans involved were Banking giant, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, who threw a party to launch PartyGaming, at the Royal Exchange, next door to the Bank of England, "Smart, but not over the top" as one wit said, (sorry that should read, as one "organiser" of the thing said).

The next step, was recruitment, athletic signing fees jostled for space in the news, ( Russ and Ruth Parasol the owners of PartyGaming, brought in Michael Jackson( no not that funny chap who warbles and assaults kiddies in America, but the one who was formerly head of the computer giants SAGE, as a chairman, he got a joining fee of £1.5 million, ansd an annual salary, of £500, 000 for a couple of days a week, ( though mostly one day weeks, ), Deputy Chairman, Brian Larcombe, formerly chief executive of 3i, Britains largest quoted, and best known venture capitalists, was also signed up for £1 million, and an annual pay packet, of £175, 00.

Then we get "across the pond", top online gamers lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, remember him, people of the USA ? he and his team kept the legislators at bay, hiring a jet, privately, took an elected US [politician ( or two ), off to Scotland, for a few rounds at St Andrews, Under this veil, the shares soared and soared, and then the wheels came off, Abramoff, and others linked to him, were charged with bribery and corruption, Suddenly it was much harder to find support in Washington for causes he espoused.

The body blow came in October, when US legislators passed legislation that made it a crime to process payments for on.line gaming, ( so, sorry old chap, but you were breaking the law, don't expect to recover one red cent here ), cutting off the lifeblood of the gambling industries, Sportingbet, lost £5000 million knocked off it's value, ansd 888, lost £135 million, Partygaming lost £2.5 billion, sportingbet was later sold to a US investor for a sum of £1, overall, the industry lost £8 billion in a week, all are in a desperate bid for survival including the channel islanders, off Englands mainland, who are the biggest employers of staff for Sportingbet,


The contrast with the inveastors or players, of these enterprises could not be more harsh, many lost millions, from Sportingbet alone, once valued at £6 billion, now worth £1, Ruth Parasol, is now one of the worlds wealthiest women, and has bought a house in the exclusive area, the Royal Borough of Kensington, in West London, she and her husband Russ of PartyGaming, still fear return tom the US but can always flee to their homes in Gibraltar or across the border in Spain,

The Shakeds now are the 13th richest family in Israel, ( 888 Holdings ), but have had their home hit a couple of times by attacks from grenades, ( it is in Ramat Poleg, near to Tel Aviv, but they do enjoy their lives, and our money, often staying at the Dorchester hotel in London, regularly.

His brother, drives a porsche, but Avi has a collection of vintage model German cars, he even hoped his money would buy him a place in Israels parliament, and has said so lopenly, hios posters proclasim him as " Avi Shaked- socialist millionaire and not ashamed of it" and people say the Americans do not understand irony, well this is it, big time.

His attempt at being elected got precisely nowhere, the ieraelis have more sense than most, than to trust him...

Kaplan ( BetonSports ), is a fugitive from the US, probably in Israel, in a padded exile however, when BetonSports went public, he scooped a figure of £28 million, David Carruthers, six months or so, before this all began ( back in 2006 ), Carruthers headed one of the biggest companies on the London Stock Exchange, as chief executive of BetonSports, he flew first class to his home in London ( £1.5 million, ), lived a champagne lifestyle, and had a second home in San Jose, Costa Rica, ( what a coincidence, so does Mark Blandford, of Sportingbet.com, . who is the escapee mentioned earlier ), last seen in his hotel lobby where he was on his way back to the police station overnight, wearing his ankle bracelet, or tag as the criminal element like to call this item,

he paid for this hotel room a year in advance of any trial, I hate to have to say this, but I am not a typist and there is so much more to this than people realise that has yet to come out such as why the companioes house in England permits a man involved in deceiving investors openly failiong in his duty as a director to be considered suitable to be a director in a british based casino, or the propriety od gaving as one of his diorectors, a former Gaming board employee effectively of the british taxpayer, in an organisation designed to polioce the gaming industry in Britain to leave such a taxpayer funded policing post, and take any employment within this industry, add the presence of a far east gaming website owner, and we have a mixture ripe for exploitation and money laundering, from a man who, is known to put his interests before that of shareholders, and taxpayers, in a big way surely their is reason to say no, to this man, and his ilk ?

My fingers are aching here, so I will leave you with someone else who can tell you something else, about all of this, from 2006, and the Daily Mail newspaper, in England, look them, up by way of the article, Mailonline. the £8 billion dot.bomb ( Caroline Graham, and Nick Gilbert reporters,

To me, these people suck ( noy the reporters ), and I have experience of this, and Mark Blandford, and one of their new directors, who as once, a general manger at the casino in question, that I worked in, and have been made redundant from, with the absolute minimum by law, they have to pay, £10, 000 for thirty years of work, I can not even get a motorbike in this country for that, let alone start again at 57, can I ? and after nine years without a single pay rise.in the whole compan, y except, of course, for the directors,