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Online gambling operators in the Central American nation of Costa Rica expressed little concern over the 7000 US Marines deployed there to deal with the escalating drug crisis.
One operator commented:
“Marines landing here will have no effect on gaming and if anything only make this a better place to operate if they can reduce the drug cartels and other rampant crime in the country - every shop here is 100% legal by Costa Rican laws and they are not about to let a foreign country send in troops because us pow backwad Spanishes just don't know what to do about it.”
In recent years, these very operators and their well paid employees have become targets of violent crime in the country.
Reports of machete wielding bandits holding up operators along busy streets and cars being riddled with bullets have become all too commonplace.
Citizens of Costa Rica are not exactly thrilled by the US Marines presence however.
Costa Rica's president, Laura Chinchilla, defended the decision to allow U.S. warships and Marines in Costa Rica's national waters, saying that the authorization is not significantly different than previous authorizations with respect to the cooperation agreement signed a decade ago.
She insisted that her administration is not making efforts to risk the constitutionality of the country or try to militarize police effort.
On Tuesday, Costa Rican police seized 1,091 kilos (2,403 pounds) of cocaine found in a house on the country’s Pacific coast and arrested 12 people. This is the largest seizure of drugs seized during Chinchilla’s Presidency.
Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
