Betfair happy to avoid US market

Wray previously served as Chief Executive Officer for Betfair, which processes tens of millions of bets every day, and is now its non-executive Chairman.

In an interview for February’s issue of Real Business magazine, he stated that, while he is happy that Barack Obama won November’s US Presidential race, his firm has no intention of exploiting the American market until the legislation officially changes.

“I’m delighted that he won but, let’s face it, gambling legislation isn’t going to be on the first or second page of Obama’s ‘to-do’ list,” said Wray. “I think the country will move to regulation but it may take five years, it may take ten years.

“We’ve had the luxury of growing at our own pace over the past decade and we’ve spent tens of millions of pounds on technology. Our website won’t fall over. When the US does open up, we’ll be ready.”

In the wake of PartyGaming co-founder Anurag Dikshit pleading guilty to violations of the 1961 Wire Act and agreeing to pay a fine of us$ 300 million, Wray stated that the risk of entering the US market is not worth taking at this time. “We’re not interested in going into grey areas,” said Wray.

“We have 25 people in our legal team and we get professional, detailed opinions on every country that we operate in. As a rule, however, I don’t believe in prohibition, it’s futile. People will find a way to gamble online regardless of whether you tell them not to do it,” Wray concluded.