HAVE BAN, WILL TRAVEL

Although they supposedly speak English in England, they have
different names for certain things. When they say "lift," they mean
"elevator." "Lorry" is their word for "truck." And to them a
"businessman" is what we call a "racketeer."

David Carruthers, former chief executive officer of Bet-OnSports,
discovered the significance of that difference during a recent
layover at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, where he was arrested for
helping Americans bet on sports. His arrest is part of a larger
attempt by the U.S. government to impose its brand of repressive
paternalism on countries with more tolerant policies.

Mr. Carruthers was on his way from London, where his company is
headquartered, to Costa Rica, where its online betting operations are
based. The business is perfectly legal in both those places, but not
in the United States. And since most of its customers are Americans,
Mr. Carruthers is guilty of about 20 different felonies.

Or so the FBI and the Justice Department say, and they're the ones
with the guns and handcuffs. Catherine Hanaway, the U.S. attorney for
the Eastern District of Missouri, accuses Mr. Carruthers and 10 other
people associated with BetOnSports, including company founder Gary
Kaplan, of violating the 1961 Wire Act, which prohibits using "a
wire-communication facility" to accept bets on "any sporting event or contest."

Leaving aside whether the Internet counts as a "wire-communication
facility," online bookmakers in other countries argue the U.S.
prohibition does not apply to them simply because some of their
customers are Americans. If a betting operation is based in Costa
Rica, they say, that's where the betting takes place, even if the
customer uses a computer in St. Louis.

The Justice Department disagrees, and on this different
interpretation it has built an indictment that could send Mr.
Carruthers to prison for decades. While a Wire Act violation carries
a maximum penalty of two years in prison, a "racketeering conspiracy"
involving such a violation can be punished by a prison term of up to
20 years. So can "mail fraud," which BetOnSports supposedly committed
by advertising that it is "legal and licensed" -- never mind that
BetOnSports is legal and licensed in the countries where it operates.

Despite the talk of fraud, Bet-OnSports is not accused of ripping off
its customers. This case has nothing to do with consumer protection,
except in the sense of protecting consumers from their own desire to
bet on sports.

The indictment's timing is also suspect. BetOnSports has been in
business since the early 1990s, but the Justice Department waited
until this summer, coincidentally, less than two weeks after the
House voted to ban online gambling and shortly before a Senate vote
on the same bill, to announce its charges. Mr. Carruthers has been
one of the ban's most visible opponents, urging Congress to legalize
and regulate the business instead.

There's no need to speculate about political motives in the case of
Marc Emery, the Canadian marijuana-seed dealer and vocal
anti-prohibitionist nabbed by the long arm of American paternalism
last year. Karen Tandy, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration, described Mr. Emery's arrest as "a significant blow"
against "the marijuana-legalization movement," bragging that "drug
legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on."

Like BetOnSports, Mr. Emery's online seed business had operated
openly for more than a decade, with minimal harassment from Canadian
law enforcement. In the U.S., which is seeking his extradition, he
could face a life sentence.

Were an executive of a U.S. media company arrested in Beijing for
violating a Chinese law against "subversive" online speech or in
Tehran for creating "indecent" Web content viewed by Iranians,
Americans would ask what right these countries have to impose their
illiberal policies on us. Sad to say, our government gives people in
other countries good cause to wonder the same about the United States.