FreeDavidCarruthers.com

A website dedicated to publicising the predicament David Carruthers finds himself in, and the circumstances of the case against BetonSports has made an appearance on the Internet.

FreeDavidCarruthers.com, features a large photograph of Carruthers in better times atop a London building and opinions for and against his situation.

The information section of the site stresses that it is in no way connected with, or motivated by BetonSports as a corporate entity.

The site has drawn public attention to anti-online gambling legislation, attempts to quash it and the notorious exemptions for horse racing and state lotteries when the avowed intention of the politicians was to protect American families and morals. It also examines the potential for the erosion of further Internet freedoms, and gives details of the Carruthers arrest and how he has been subsequently handled.

Editorial content on the site asks: "So, what is his crime? Is he a murderer, a dangerous terrorist, or even a white collar criminal responsible for embezzling millions of dollars?

"No, his ‘crime’ is to be a vocal advocate of online gambling regulation in the United States. This site is dedicated to exposing the hypocrisy of the current United States Administration in its attitude to gambling, and its attempts to persecute people operating businesses legally outside its own borders."

On Sunday July 16, 2006 at 11pm local time, David Carruthers, a British citizen, was arrested at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas, USA by US Federal agents while changing planes.
He was travelling with his wife Carol (who was also detained but subsequently released) from the UK to his home in Costa Rica where they have resided since 2000.

So, what is his crime? Is he a murderer, a dangerous terrorist, or even a white collar criminal responsible for embezzling millions of dollars?
No, his ‘crime’ is to be a vocal advocate of online gambling regulation in the United States.

The current US Administration is nuts. The indictment and arrest of David Carruthers is so wrong on so many levels I’m not sure where to begin.
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On the surface the indictment against him relates to his being a board member and CEO of BETonSPORTS Plc, a British online gambling company. But any observer of the situation can see that his real crime is to dare to demonstrate the futility and hypocrisy of the current US Administration and its attitude to online gambling ‘prohibition’.

Mr Carruthers has been making the case for online gambling regulation in the US for years, and it seems his continuing stellar performance in this area was too much for a US Administration looking to the November Congressional elections, and expected heavy losses.
The final straw may have been in April this year when Carruthers took part in an online debate at the Wall Street Journal Online with Representative Jim Leach (R-Iowa), one of the sponsors of legislation to ‘prohibit’ Internet gambling.

Leach has been trying to pass pretty much the same bill since the late 1990s, and his frankly ludicrous ‘Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act’ (H.R. 4411) recently passed the Congress (although it must pass the Senate as well to become law).
In response Carruthers presented a clear, logical and some would say devastatingly obvious, case for the regulation of the online gambling industry in the United States. Leach comes off as a deranged ideologue out of touch with reality.
You can imagine after that certain members of Congress sitting around in one of their comfortable oak paneled rooms smoking cigars, drinking whisky, and plotting how they could neutralize such an inconvenient opponent.