Israeli Authorities Crack Down on On-Line Gambling
Author: David Wolberg, Kuperschmidt & Goldstein

Though the Israel Penal Law, generally, subject to a few qualifications, prohibits “unauthorized games”, “lotteries” and “gambling”, for quite a while, authorities had taken little or no action in enforcing the law against on-line gambling websites.  These websites enabled online players to either win or loose money.

Due to a recent change of policy, the Police cautioned a number of on-line gambling companies to cease all money related online games in which there is an element of luck involved.  The police made it clear that the State Attorney regards online gambling as a criminal offence.  The Police and the State Attorney further cautioned credit card companies to cease all credit activities in favor of on-line gamblers.

The law was further upheld when an English citizen, Michael Carlton, CEO of “Casino Victor Chandler”, an on-line gambling site operating from Gibraltar, was arrested while visiting Israel.  Chandler was later released on condition that he deposits a personal bail.  When appealing the terms of his release, inter alia, he argued that he had not committed an offence in Israel as the website operates from Gibraltar.  The Tel Aviv District Court rejected this argument stating that Israeli gamblers, using the site in Israel, render it an Israeli offence.