October 25, 2007
Reports in the media over the last two days concerning the arrest of Unibet CEO Petter Nylander have led to the intervention of European Commission on behalf of Mr Nylander, a development that is now proving a source of embarrassment for the French government which issued the warrant for his arrest.
Unibet’s Petter Nylander was arrested this previous Monday at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport under a warrant issued by French authorities and acted upon by Dutch police. The arrest evokes memories of the arrests of former BetonSports executives on behalf of US authorities, but there is a difference with the Nylander case now being pointed out by the European Commission.
The European Commission, a body created to oversee compliance with EU trade policy, has now commented through Commission spokesman Oliver Drewes that the arrest could constitute an arrest of a person innocent of wrongdoing.
Speaking to reporters, Drewes said: “It could very well be that somebody has been arrested who is innocent.”
The reason for this is that the French law under which Nylander was arrested is itself at odds with European legislation and therefore a European-wide arrest warrant cannot be acted upon outside of France.
“There was an earlier French arrest based on the French legislation in place and that was therefore invoked by the Dutch border police,” Drewes said.
France is currently in the position of having to conform its existing gambling monopoly laws to EU terms and the arrest of Nylander only serves to highlight France’s increasingly untenable position on the issue of freeing up online gambling markets in that country.
Observers of the online bingo industry and free online bingo operators plying their trade in Europe will be fully aware of the similarity this arrest has with US attempts to prosecute online gambling executives. The case may see an intensification of pressure on France to open its markets up to online gaming operators including bingo online games and online bingo halls.
Written by John Witherspoon – Need the best online bingo games? BingoStreet.com collected the best online bingo promotions and free bingo games online.
October 25, 2007
A man who wanted to rob the night’s take at a Livonia bingo hall got more than he bargained for as three bingo patrons chased him down and held him for the police early Sunday morning.
Elton Mason, 20, of Detroit was arraigned Monday in 16th District Court by Magistrate Dennis Epler on seven counts including armed robbery, felony firearm, felonious assault and being an habitual offender.
He is currently being held in the Wayne County Jail on a $250,000 cash/surety bond. There is a 9 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 1, preliminary exam set for the case.
According to Livonia police reports, a Wyandotte woman who works at Shamrock Bingo, 33111 Plymouth, was leaving with a deposit bag at 1:45 a.m. Sunday when a man started yelling and running at her.
She managed to get into her car when the man caught up with her, trying to force the car door open and pounding on the window with a gun. The report said the man broke one of the car’s windows in the effort.
At the same time, a group of three bingo patrons came out of the hall and started chasing the man off the premises.
By the time Livonia police officers arrived on the scene, the patrons had apprehended the man and pinned him to the ground at the nearby Sheldon Pool - less than 100 yards southeast from the bingo hall.
During the citizens’ arrest, it was learned that the culprit had tried to fight off the three men and threatened one of them with the gun during the altercation.
October 25, 2007
Lucky Kate Harris can barely believe her luck after scooping £1,000 with the Leicester Mercury’s fantastic Dream Ticket Bingo competition.
The 86-year-old, of Kingsway, off Narborough Road South, Leicester, won the prize after getting a full house in the sixth week of the game.
Everyone who plays has the chance to win £1,000. There will be eight weekly games in total, with a maximum prize fund of £75,000.
Each game runs from Wednesday to Tuesday.
Every day, we will publish a selection of numbers. If those numbers are on your game card, cross them off.
If you cross off all 15 numbers on any one of the six grids on your card, you just have to call us the following day to claim your £1,000.
A new game card comes free with the Mercury and the final game card will be in the paper on Wednesday, October 31.
October 25, 2007
ANOTHER EXCITING week in the Newsday Bingo came to an end on October 19 when prizes were presented to winners of Draw Number seven at our Chacon Street office.
This time around Carol Jackman, a housewife, of Diego Martin, won a gift voucher from Pennywise Cosmetics.
Mrs Jackman said she won a bed in the Newsday bingo years ago.
Ann Julien, a security officer with Amalgamated Security, was the recipient of a hamper of expensive alcohol courtesy Trinidad Import and Export Co Ltd.
Dhano Baboolal, winner of a Gift Certificate courtesy Ebony Radio 104 FM is employed at Bowan Construction and hails from Claxton Bay, and last but not least, Randy Besai, an electrician of Cumuto is the winner of a digital binocular/camera sponsored by Laptop City.
October 25, 2007
When Tania Burnett won £100,000 in a bingo game, she didn’t realise it would mean losing her two best friends.
But she is no longer on speaking terms with Stacey Wilson and Abigail Stacey after they demanded she split the jackpot three ways - and took her to court when she refused.
The two women claimed the group had agreed to split any significant winnings equally. But Miss Burnett’s lawyer argued that although they had ‘discussed’ sharing any winnings, there was no formal agreement.
And after a protracted legal battle - paid for by the taxpayer - a judge in the Court of Appeal ruled that any verbal promise she might have made was not legally binding.
Miss Burnett is therefore entitled to keep the whole £101,211 prize - which is just as well, as she said yesterday that she has already spent it and the other two ‘could get stuffed’.
The 25-year-old mother-of-two insisted: ‘We never agreed to share any winnings and they put me through three years of hell.
‘The day before bingo, Stacey asked me if we wanted to share any money we won and I said No. I’ve played lots of bingo and I never share because it causes problems like this.
They only kicked up a fuss because I won so much. If I had just won a tenner they wouldn’t have asked for a share of that.’
She added: ‘All the money’s gone anyway. I’ve spent the lot on my kids and my house.
‘If I’m honest, I wish I hadn’t won it at all. It’s been far too much hassle.’
The three women each paid £7 for a night at the Gala Bingo Club in Plymouth in January 2005.
Abigail Stacey and Stacey Wilson
Bitter: Abigail Stacey and Stacey Wilson
Miss Burnett’s winning streak began when she scooped a £153 prize.
She then paid an extra £2.40 to enter the national game, which links hundreds of Gala Bingo houses around the country.
Minutes later, she was the first to cry ‘House’ - and scooped the jackpot.
But it wasn’t long before things got frosty.
‘Stacey immediately had a face like thunder,’ Miss Burnett, from Plymouth, said yesterday.
‘She said to me “We agreed to share, don’t you remember?” I told her we hadn’t agreed anything of the sort.’
Over a meal in an Indian restaurant, the cracks in their friendship widened.
Miss Burnett said she gave the other two women £40 to pay for their share of the bill, but that the atmosphere was ‘horrible’.
She said: ‘We’d agreed to go out for dinner before hand, so we went for a curry.
‘Abigail was OK, but Stacey’s face was like a smacked bum.’
The following day Miss Burnett decided not go back to her job at the postal depot in Plymouth where all three women had worked. They have not seen each other since.
She added: ‘For three years I’ve been back and forth to court. It’s been a nightmare, but I don’t feel guilty because we never agreed anything.’
But Miss Wilson, 24, yesterday begged to differ from her former friend’s version of events.
‘Tania never shares and she’s being rubbish,’ she said.
‘She thought of herself first and she’s got to live with that. I’m glad she’s been put through three years of hell.’
The mother-of-one added: ‘If the shoe was on the other foot there wouldn’t even have been a court case because we would have paid her straight away.
‘We’d made the agreement the week before and it’s quite common in bingo. I’ve shared up to £600 before.’
Miss Stacey, 26, from Plymouth, added: ‘The friendship we had was struck off as soon as we started going through the legal process.
‘But me and Stacey are closer now than ever - we’ve been through this together and we’re the only ones who know the truth.’