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Martin Bashir is known for his hard-hitting journalism. You don't let him interview you if you have anything to hide or have anything you just don't want to talk about. He will, guaranteed, pick that one item and bash you over the head with it repeatedly. If you can recall, Bashir was the guy Michael Jackson had interview him to dispel the rumors that Michael molested boys. Instead of killing the rumor Bashir did his best to confirm it. I live a rather normal life with 2 kids and a husband and I'm not sure I would want to be interviewed by Bashir, he's that much of a killer. I'm pretty sure I have nothing to hide, but I'm afraid to find out if I'm wrong. Mother Theresa, G-d rest her soul, wouldn't want to be interviewed by Bashir. This is why I can't figure out for the life of me why someone like Calvin Ayre would agree to be interviewed by Martin Bashir of ABC News. Calvin Ayre does not have a spotless reputation. He's the president of Bodog Entertainment Group, an online gambling company. The internet gambling industry does not have a gleaming reputation in the US. It doesn't help that he's a brash, tacky, and in your face individual. Let's face it, he was interviewed with four bikini-clad women surrounding him, the man is a putz. According to the ABC Nightline interview Bashir talked to Ayre at his "compound where four bikini-clad models whose outfits just managed to contain the company's eight-letter logo waited nearby." The man has a harem. I wish I got ABC Nightline news, because this is an interview I would have loved to see. The website gave a snippet of the conversation regarding Ayre and taxes, and it was riveting: "MARTIN BASHIR: Do you pay tax? CALVIN AYRE: Yes. I pay taxes all over the place. MARTIN BASHIR: Do you pay tax in America? CALVIN AYRE: I don't operate in the United States. MARTIN BASHIR: But you take money from -- CALVIN AYRE: United States has chosen to not allow our industry to operate in the United States. And they voluntarily made that decision. It's not up to me to force myself into the United States to pay taxes there. The countries that I do operate in, I pay taxes in them. MARTIN BASHIR: Do you pay personal tax in Costa Rica? CALVIN AYRE: In Costa Rica? Personal income tax? We're going to not talk about my personal tax structure. That's another area that -- MARTIN BASHIR: So I'll assume you don't. CALVIN AYRE: Pardon? MARTIN BASHIR: I'll assume you don't. CALVIN AYRE: We're just not going to talk about my personal financial situation. I will talk about what I do from a corporate perspective, though. MARTIN BASHIR: Go ahead. CALVIN AYRE:We pay taxes everywhere. We pay taxes everywhere we operate. We pay taxes. MARTIN BASHIR: So you pay taxes on your business here in Costa Rica then? CALVIN AYRE: Correct. We pay transaction taxes. We pay income taxes. We pay licensing taxes. And we pay taxes in a number of other jurisdictions as well -- including Canada. MARTIN BASHIR: Do you pay personal taxes in Canada? CALVIN AYRE: Stick to corporate stuff for now. MARTIN BASHIR: Do you pay personal tax in Canada? CALVIN AYRE: Corporate. Right. MARTIN BASHIR: So you don't pay personal tax in Canada and you don't pay personal tax in Costa Rica. CALVIN AYRE: I'm just not prepared to talk. The interview is going to be us talking about Bodog and what Bodog is about." Could you imagine? Why would anyone be all that interested in Bodog? It's an interview, not a personal PR function. Talking only about Bodog doesn't give higher ratings. Bashir is trying to focus on the tax issue from the standpoint that Ayre is doing something illegal from the US point of view. The fact is that he isn't doing anything illegal as long as he doesn't allow for bets to be placed by phone. What I found interesting about this brief interview snippet is that he pays taxes for every place where he is allowed to operate. If the US allowed for off-shore internet gambling he would pay taxes there as well. He isn't hiding this fact. I don’t know how good it is that he is flaunting it, but kudos for mentioning it anyhow. Bodog.com has players from the United States. As a matter of fact the bulk of their players come from the US. They are located off-shore in Costa Rica, their bank account in Britain, and their servers somewhere else. As none of the business is located in the US they are not breaking any US laws. He's not allowed to live there, being the owner of an online casino, but he isn't a US citizen anyhow so it doesn't really matter. Ayre pisses people off not only because he's tacky but because he's the sole owner of Bodog, so there's no way to get any real information about the company. This is a company which, "turned over about $7.3 billion in wagers and gaming" last year alone. "As a result, it is difficult to assess Ayre's actual wealth. There are no published accounts and, for one so given to self-promotion, he is remarkably reluctant to discuss the details -- especially when it comes to the vexed issue of paying taxes, as indicated in this excerpt from our interview." The interview was biased from the get go, as is the article. "What's most surprising of all is that it is illegal to run an online gambling business in the United States. That hasn't stopped Ayre." Why are they focusing on the fact that it is illegal to fun an internet gambling business from the US? He isn't running it from the US. This should be a non-issue. Why should it stop him? If it was illegal for US citizens to deposit and play then I could see a point to the statement, but it isn't. The sites aren't blocked because while the operation itself is illegal, playing on it isn't. The few states where it is illegal have stated that they will not prosecute people who choose to game online as it's a victimless crime (Washington state may change that but for the moment this is the case). So why should he stop people from doing something legal on their end of it? Furthermore, if this is how people want to use their entertainment dollar why should he stop them at all? Why couldn't ABC News asked about that? Related Links: Posted on: June 26, 2006
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