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	A.M. Costa Rica Your daily English-language news source Monday through Friday

A.M. Costa Rica third newspage
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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Jan. 22, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 15

U.S. takes another bite out of the offshore gambling business

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Sportsbooks and other gambling operations in Costa Rica have been dropped abruptly from the 21st century and are now using the old fashioned checkbook to pay U.S. winners.

The reason is that Neteller Plc, the money transferring business based on the Isle of Man, has suspended its dealings with U.S. citizens because two of its former executives were detained in the United States.

Neteller transferred more than $7 billion in 2005 and some 95 percent of the money was from Internet gambling sources, said the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

The men who were arrested are Stephen Eric Lawrence, 46, and John David LeFebvre, 55. Lawrence was detained in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and LeFebvre was detained in Malibu, California. Both men are Canadians.

Both men are charged with conspiring to transfer funds with the intent to promote illegal gambling, said a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office. If convicted, both defendants face a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment.

The arrests are part of a continuing effort to keep U.S. citizens from gambling offshore. Operators of gambling firms have been arrested, too. BetonSports.com shut down after chief executive officer David Carruthers was arrested while changing planes in Texas. A number of other company representatives were held in the United States after indictments were opened July 17.

The action against Neteller is a blow to local companies. U.S. credit card companies and banks soon will be working under new legislation that prohibits them from making financial transfers offshore for gambling activities.

The State of New York has obtained agreements from major credit card firms based there to avoid the gambling market.

For gambling firms in Costa Rica, the action at least crimps their activities. The U.S. football Superbowl is Feb. 4, and basketball season is well under way.

Neteller posted to its Web site that it was suspending dealings with U.S. residents early Thursday. Trading in its stock on the London exchange was suspended temporarily last week, too.

U.S. officials are using the company's own words to build a case. Said the U.S. news release: "At the time that the defendants took Neteller public, the company acknowledged in its offering documents that United States law prohibited persons from promoting certain forms of gambling, including Internet gambling, and transmitting funds that are known to have been derived from criminal activity or are intended to promote criminal activity. The company’s directors, including Lawrence and LeFebvre, also conceded that they were risking prosecution by the government of the United States under existing or future federal laws."

The United States has passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act but it has yet to be implemented. The arrests last week were based on pre-existing criminal law.

The use of animal terms to describe a state of mind

Perro bravo

“Fierce (ill-humored) dog.” I must admit that this is not really a dicho, but on some level it might be.

Let’s start with its most common usage, a warning sign one might find at the entrance to a house or other piece of real property. The intent, of course, is to ward off potential intruders. In English the sign would read, “Beware Of The Dog!” Some people put up such signs as a deterrent to burglars even though the property owner may not actually have a dog. Still, a thief probably would think twice as to whether or not he wants to risk being torn apart by some furious doberman or rottweiler.

We refer to a person with a quick temper as being enojado como un perro bravo, or “furious as a mad dog.” Rabia is the Spanish word for “hydrophobia” or “rabies,” a virus that causes dogs to go mad (in the sense of being crazed), convulsive, and eventually results in the wretched animal’s death. But in Spanish we may also use a locution such as: me dio tanta rabia que Lucia sabe más que yo, or “it infuriates me that Lucia knows more than I do.”

It seems clear that what’s going on here is the attachment of dog-like or at least animal behavioral characteristics to humans. For, even though humans can be infected with hydrophobia, they most commonly must be bitten by a “mad dog” in order to acquire the disease.

Apart from mad dogs and Englishmen and their relationship to the mid-day sun, there is, of course, another quite common linguistic way in which humans become connected with dogs, of the female gender that is, but then perhaps we should save that little beau mot for another time.

It strikes me as rather odd that the canine attributes most often ascribed to humans seem only to be bad ones. After all, aren’t dogs supposed to be man’s best friends?

My niece has two enormous rottweilers. They are formidable to be sure, but with friends and family members they are as docile, friendly and playful as can be. Let a stranger approach acting in a threatening manner toward us, and these two dogs immediately become fearlessly protective and quite aggressive with the menacing intruder. I think most people would agree that all these are quite admirable characteristics that are often found wanting in many humans.

The
way we say it

By Daniel Soto

My niece and her husband also have three parrots that
have learned to imitate the barking of the dogs. Once a young man was fleeing the police and made the mistake of jumping over their back garden wall to avoid capture. But the terrific commotion raised by the two dogs and three parrots so terrified the hapless fugitive that he clambered back over the wall where the officers were waiting to apprehend him.

Costa Ricans seem to put more faith in watchdogs and
signs warning potential intruders about them than they do in such things as insurance policies. For this reason it has taken homeowners insurance a long time to catch on here.
This is of course also due to the fact that most Ticos prefer to take their chances rather than shell out the extra money to insure their homes against such things as fire and theft.

But it’s a funny thing about the signs on people’s front gates that read ¡Perro Bravo! They're sort of like all those shrieking, wailing car alarms: They’ve become so ubiquitous that hardly anyone pays any attention to them anymore.

So, if you’re going to put up one of those signs perhaps you¹d better invest in an actual perro guardián to go with it. And when the house catches fire, well, I really don’t think the guard dog or the sign is going to do you awfully much good.

Now, a word about the word bravo: It has multiple meanings, not all of them seemingly congruous. English equivalents for bravo are: angry, brave, fierce, fine, ill-humored, spruce, wild, and fabulous! (should you happen to be at the opera).

Real Cuban cigars for sale.

Churchill Cohibas and Churchill
Romeo & Julietas.
Bought last month. Still fresh,
authentication stickers in place.
Limited quantities.
In San José. Best offer.

cigarsincostarica@hotmail.com

You need to see Costa Rican tourism information HERE!

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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Jan. 22, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 15

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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Jan. 22, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 15


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San José, Costa Rica, Monday, Jan. 22, 2007, Vol. 7, No. 15

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