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Ayre's Costa Rican property raided by authorities
The trademark permasmirk on the face of Calvin Ayre, internet gaming mogul
and recent addition to the Forbes annual ranking of billionaires list, was
gone for a few minutes when authorities raided his property in Costa Rica on
Friday. Ayre is currently filming a poker reality show in Bodog
entertainment’s compound in the country.
Bodog is owned solely by Canadian native Ayre, and United States officials
have long taken issue with the fact that his fortune has been made largely
by taking bets from 16 million customers, most of them United States
residents. Internet gambling is illegal in the United States.
The raid was ostensibly the result of complaints from neighbors about the
raucous parties being thrown in conjunction with the filming of the show.
Computer equipment was removed for the sprawling property, and Ayre was
subsequently released, although there have been reports that some of his
personal security guards are still being detained.
No charges are reported to have been made, and there no suggestions at this
point that the U.S. authorities prompted the raid, though they hold his
fortune to have been amassed illegally. Ayre, however, is a Canadian citizen
who has never held an American citizenship, and has no known assets in the
United States.
Last year, Bodog handled $7.3 billion in online wagers, triple the volume of
2004. Ayre says all this betting gave him sales of $210 million, and that he
took 26% of the revenue to the bottom line. Ayre is 44 years old and a newly
made billionaire in the entertainment industry, so it is really not a big
surprise that his run-ins with authority will be over a partying lifestyle.
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