Bwin.party CEO Released from Detention in Belgium
November 30th, 2012 by Site Admin
Norbert Teufelberger, one of the two CEOs of bwin.party, was held for questioning in Belgium on Tuesday. He was subsequently released after being held for two hours. Officials were reluctant to release any of the details of Teufelberger’s arrest. However, experts expect that he was being detained because bwin.party has been operating in Belgium without the proper licenses.
Teufelberger has been arrested for violating local gambling laws before. He spent several days in a French prison six years ago for advertising gambling to French citizens. France has a state monopoly on gambling and wanted to send a message to any online gambling firms that tried to offer their services to its citizens.
An attorney from the Belgian Gaming Commission said that Teufelberger has made a few statements to reporters that indicate he is probably illegally offering online gaming services to Belgian citizens.
Bwin.party argued that Belgium’s new online gaming regulations violated European Union laws earlier this year. The company got placed on a black list after making this statement. They tried to circumvent the blacklist by setting up a new website.
The gaming regulator said that it is taking strong disciplinary measures against any site that it caught violating any online gaming laws. Belgian officials warned that any customers caught playing on the new site could be fined up to 25,000 euros. bwin.party was fined 75,000 euros for the violation.
Belgian officials said that Teufelberger is free to go, but will have to answer their questions about the legality of bwin.party’s operations in Belgium. They said that he will have until December 17 to comply with their instructions.
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