CEO of Online Casino arrested
26th October, 2007
Petter Nylander, the CEO of the huge Online Gambling Group Unibet, was arrested by the Dutch police with a European warrant, which in terms was issued by a French judge.
The whole thing may come to an end very soon though, as France is trying to work towards a sensible resolution with the European Commission, with French Government even attending to force the case against Nylander’s monopolistic policies dropped. Nevertheless the case was not dropped as it already went too far in terms of publicity and other events, especially considering that the warrant has already been served.
The warrant was issued due to the events that happened last year, due to the proceedings by Française Des Jeux, the French lottery monopoly and also PMU, the monopoly that governs betting on horses, who declared that Nylander’s company was violating national laws. The laws that were designed to protect State-owned monopolies.
The reason for the French government to try and stop the case from going further is embarrassment that the whole situation is causing them. Paris is now trying to negotiate some sort of compromise, so that they can demonstrate their conformity to the EU principles.
This is what a spokesperson for the Budget Ministry of France had to say on the matter: “It is not a matter between the State and Unibet, Française Des Jeux and PMU will be told to drop their complaint.”
The arrest has been condemned by the Unibet, the European Commission and Swedish politicians, as they disagree that Unibet’s actions were in any way illegal in relation to EU law.
Christofer Fjellner, a Member of the European Parliament for Sweden, had this to say: “A worrying fact is that the European arrest warrant, an instrument put in place to combat terrorism and organised crime, is now used by the French Government to punish those who fight French protectionism. What will be the next sector to be threatened with French arrests? The French are turning the European arrest warrant into a political tool.”
The closed hearing for Nylander is appointed to happen in Amsterdam, that is supposed to determine the length of the detention. Nevertheless, it has been mentioned in The Financial Times that the case is going to be dropped and the hearing will not happen at all.
