The unlucky gambler
David Carruthers was sitting in a London restaurant overlooking the Thames, a clear view of the City beckoning. He was hungry, impatient for service, troubled by a persistent cough, but otherwise in typically feisty, talkative mood.
The smartly attired 49-year-old BetonSports chief executivewas keen to talk about the British company he had takento market two years ago and the online gambling industry at large. He was clearly relishing the opportunities for growingthe company further. Barely a week later, this Edinburgh-bred food fanatic, lover of fine wines and expert snooker player appeared in a Dallas court dressed in a prison-regulation orange jump suit, his hands and legs shackled to a chain-gang of other inmates.
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His arrest, in the transit lounge of Dallas Fort Worth airport on Sunday night, en route from London to Costa Rica where he and the company are based, sent the young fast-growing online gambling industry, worth $12bn (￡6.5bn), into a state of shock. Carol, his wife, was travelling with him and, shaken by the experience, was allowed to continue the journey to Costa Rica. But Mr Carruthers spent the whole of Monday unable to make contact with the outside world, in the custody of the US authorities. "Poor David, he has spent his career trying to up his profile and the moment he becomes front-page news he can't talk to anybody," said someone who knows him well.
In vain, the company tried to extract information from the US authorities. The paralysis it felt spread across the industry. Worse was to follow. The indictment from the US Department of Justice served against Mr Carruthers and the company the following day threatened to inflict lasting damage on the high-profile industry. The DoJ's 26-page indictment charged BetonSports, Mr Carruthers, company founder Gary Kaplan and associates and suppliers on 22 counts of racketeering, conspiracy and fraud. With Mr Carruthers' arrest, the DoJ was sending out an unambiguous message: online gambling in the US is illegal and those who flouted the law would be prosecuted.
As investors took fright and the markets wiped more than $1bn from the sector, the predicament of Mr Carruthers added to the unease UK companies werefeeling about the extradition from London last week of the NatWest Three on Enron-related charges. Chief executives in the online gambling sector and beyond acknowledged they were having second thoughts about US travel plans. For the online gambling sector, the survival of whole companies was at stake. Was the DoJ indictment the first in a series of prosecutions aimed at wiping out the sector in the US altogether?
Mr Carruthers was never marked out for stardom. He was 19 when he became a shop manager at Ladbrokes, the leading bookmaker. He was a Ladbrokes loyalist, staying with the company for 20 years. He managed around 40 of the business's then 1,900 high-street betting shops, looking after the Midlands and south Wales territories on a middle manager's salary of about ￡40,000. His profile never registered with members of the Ladbrokes board.
But the future of the betting industry lay in online gambling and, like several Ladbrokes colleagues, Mr Carruthers was lured by young entrepreneurs to run new ventures. The prospects of accessing far greater numbers of gamblers via the internet needed experienced betting hands such as Mr Carruthers. Armed with an MBA, he was hired via a recruitment trawl by Mr Kaplan, a stocky New Yorker who, according to the indictment, first came under the microscope of US authorities in 1993 for running an illegal service taking telephone bets for sports and sporting events.
Mr Kaplan took his operation to Costa Rica to avoid US jurisdiction. It evolved into BetonSports.com and, according to the indictment, advertised itself as "the largest online wagering service in the world". Mr Kaplan, also known by the pseudonyms "Greg Champion" and "G" and usually surrounded by Uzi-carrying bodyguards, faced civil proceedings in New Jersey in 2001, but by 2003 had got 100,000 active players, placing 33m bets worth $1.6bn. Other online gambling groups make millions of dollars from the US but avoid sportsbooks, focusing on online poker and casino games. SportingBet, which does operate sportsbooks, declines bets from the US.
Mr Carruthers was brought in to take BetonSports to market. "He developed the professional management of the business," said one business associate. The archetypal business workaholic, he is well read in management literature. But there is also a relaxed, straightforward manner behind the hard business ethos. "He liked to talk, he's an affable guy," another associate said. "He tends to be fairly open. He is someone who is very passionate. He has spent a lot of time lobbying for regulation and he has got an opinion on everything."
Whatever the perceived risks, Mr Carruthers was a regular visitor to the US, seeking influence in a debate joined by US Congressional Republicans about strengthening existing but incoherent anti-gambling law. He appeared on network television news and wrote syndicated newspaper columns about the futility of shutting a multi-billion dollar industry whose popularity had attracted 8m Americans and counting. "Politicians who seek to prohibit online wagering in order to prevent underage gambling, excessive gambling and corruption could address these goals more effectively through regulation," he wrote in one column earlier this year.
By last week, he was becoming more bullish about the direction of the debate, despite the passage of a House of Representatives bill to outlaw most forms of online gambling and prevent US financial institutions from transferring money to online betting sites or payment services.
Mr Carruthers attracts no little sympathy in a dazed industry. One expert who knows him from industry conferences said he did not come across as someone likely to become caught up in an indictment. "The authorities can't reach Gary Kaplan, he is a fugitive. They are using David Carruthers to try and get as much information as they can so that they can try and go after Gary Kaplan in other ways."
Some believe Mr Carruthers will end up with a petty misdemeanour charge or a fine. Whatever his fate, his high-stakes world of corporate power is over. "Online gambling is run by people who made more money than they ever dreamt about," another banking adviser said. Presumably, nor did David Carruthers dream he would end up where he is now.
倒霉的“赌徒”
大卫?卡拉瑟斯(David Carruthers)坐在伦敦一间俯瞰泰晤士河的餐馆里，令人砰然心动的伦敦金融城清晰可见。他饥肠辘辘，迫不及待地等着上菜，而且不住地咳嗽。不过，他仍然一如既往地活跃而健谈。
这位体育博彩公司BetonSports的首席执行官现年49岁，穿着入时，热衷于谈论这家两年前他推动上市的英国公司以及整个在线赌博行业。他显然在回味着抓住机遇让公司进一步发展带来的乐趣。但仅仅一周后，这位出生在爱丁堡的美食家、上等葡萄酒的爱好者和斯诺克老手，却出现在了美国达拉斯的一个法庭上，身穿橙色连体囚服，手脚和其他囚犯铐在一起。
7月23日晚，在他从伦敦飞往家庭和公司总部所在地哥斯达黎加的途中，卡拉瑟斯在达拉斯-沃斯堡机场等候转机时被捕。他的被捕震动了价值120亿美元、迅速增长的新兴在线赌博行业。他的妻子卡罗尔(Carol)当时与他同行。受到震惊的她获准继续飞往哥斯达黎加。但整个周一，卡拉瑟斯都在美国当局的羁押之下，无法与外界联系。一位熟悉他的人士表示：“可怜的大卫，他一生都在努力提升自己的形象，可在他成为头条新闻的时候，却不能跟任何人交谈。”
该公司试图向美国当局了解更多信息，但只是徒劳。公司业务的瘫痪波及到整个行业。后来的情况更糟。美国司法部(Department of Justice)次日对卡拉瑟斯及其公司作出的指控，可能对这个备受关注的行业造成持续性破坏。司法部的起诉书长达26页，指控BetonSports、卡拉瑟斯、公司创始人加里?卡普兰(Gary Kaplan)以及关联公司和供应商犯有诈骗、共谋和作假等22项罪名。通过逮捕卡拉瑟斯，美国司法部发出一个明确信息：在线赌博在美国是非法的，蔑视法律者将受到起诉。
因为与安然(Enron)相关的指控， NatWest原来的三名银行家上周被引渡至美国受审，这已经令英国公司感到不安，而卡拉瑟斯身陷困境更加剧了这种不安情绪――投资者一片惊惶，该行业市值跌去10多亿美元。在线赌博及其它行业的首席执行官们承认，他们都在重新考虑赴美旅行计划。对在线赌博行业而言，所有企业的生存都成了问题。是否美国司法部的起诉只是一个开头，以后还会有一系列旨在彻底清除美国在线赌博业的诉讼？
卡拉瑟斯绝不是注定要当明星的。成为一流赌博公司立博(Ladbrokes)的店铺经理时，他才19岁。他对立博忠心耿耿，在该公司呆了20年。那时立博拥有1900个街面博彩店铺，他管理着其中约40个，并负责英格兰中部和南威尔士地区，拿着4万英镑左右的中层经理薪水。他的形象从来没有引起过立博董事会成员的注意。
但是，赌博业的前景在于在线赌博。与立博国际的几名同事一样，卡拉瑟斯也受到年轻的创业人士的引诱，去经营新的公司。要通过互联网获得更为众多的赌徒，像卡拉瑟斯这类赌博老手的经验是必须的。拥有MBA学位的他通过一个招聘网被卡普兰雇用。卡普兰是一个矮胖的纽约人，根据起诉书所述，他首次进入美国警方的视野是在1993年，原因是非法经营公司，从事体育和体育赛事电话赌博。
卡普兰将业务转移至哥斯达黎加，以躲避美国的管辖。这块业务后来发展成了BetonSports.com网站，据起诉书称，它还打广告自称为“全球最大的在线赌博公司”。卡普兰经常使用“格雷格?钱皮恩”(Greg Champion)和“G”等假名字，而且通常被携带乌兹(Uzi)冲锋枪的保镖簇拥着。2001年，他在新泽西州遭到民事诉讼，不过，截至2003年，他已经拥有了10万名活跃玩家，累计投注3300万笔，赌注价值16亿美元。其它在线赌博集团从美国赚取了数百万美元，但会避开体育赌博，集中进行在线扑克和纸牌游戏。而进行体育赌博的SportingBet公司则拒绝接受来自美国的下注。
卡拉瑟斯的任务，就是把BetonSports推向市场。他的一位商业伙伴说道：“他使这项业务得到了专业管理。”作为典型的商界工作狂，他经常出现在管理类作品中。不过，在他强硬的商业特质背后，也有一种轻松、坦率的作风。“他喜欢说话，是个和蔼的家伙，”另一位商业伙伴表示，“他总是很外向，是那种充满热情的人。他花了许多时间为监管问题进行游说，他对所有问题都有自己的观点。”
尽管已知存在风险，卡拉瑟斯还是定期去美国，力图在一场有共和党国会议员参与的争论中施加影响。这场辩论的内容是关于加强虽已存在但缺乏一致性的反赌博法。他在全国播出的电视新闻中露面，同时还为多家报纸撰写专栏文章，阐述关闭一个价值数十亿美元、吸引了800万美国人的产业没有好处。今年早些时候，他在一个专栏中写道：“政治家们试图通过禁止在线赌博来防止未成年人参与赌博、赌博成瘾和腐败堕落，但他们可以通过监管更有效地达到目标。”
截至上周，尽管美国众议院通过了一项法案，宣布大部分的在线赌博均为非法，从而阻止美国金融机构把资金汇往在线赌博网站或提供付费服务，但卡拉瑟斯对这场争论的走势越来越乐观。
在这个令人眼花缭乱的行业里，卡拉瑟斯博取到不少同情。一位通过行业研讨会认识他的专家表示，他遭到控告并非偶然。“当局抓不到加里?卡普兰，他逃亡在外。他们在利用大卫?卡拉瑟斯，试图尽可能多地获得一些信息，以便通过其它途径来追捕加里?卡普兰。”
有些人认为，卡拉瑟斯最终可能受到行为不端的轻罪指控，或判罚一笔罚款。不论他的命运如何，他那高风险的企业权力世界已经结束了。一位银行业顾问称：“经营在线赌博的人，挣到的钱比他们想到的还多。”也许，大卫?卡拉瑟斯也没有想到，自己会以现在这个样子收场。
