In April, former Vancouver resident Calvin Ayre caught industry observers by surprise when he announced he was quitting his online gambling empire, Bodog, purportedly to regain his privacy and further his charitable activities.
The surprise was compounded when he claimed he had transferred ownership of Bodog a year earlier to the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, which runs hundreds of gaming websites from the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal.
"I was really more of a brand ambassador for Bodog the past while anyway -- but it was fun while it lasted," he said on the Bodog website.
Are we really to believe that Ayre, who had been flamboyantly and boisterously playing the role of Bodog's fun-loving top dog until then, had actually checked out months before, and that his motive was simply to live a life of quiet reflection and philanthropy?
I think not. It is widely known that the U.S. government, which has declared war on unlicensed Internet gambling, has Ayre in its crosshairs.
It is more likely that he is trying to distance himself from any future prosecutions.
