Sportingbet's former non-executive director, Peter Dicks, was cleared to return to his home in England today after New York Governor George Pataki refused to sign the warrant that would have extradited him to Louisiana.
Judge Gene Lopez at the Queens Criminal Court dismissed the warrant and ordered Dicks' $50,000 bail money returned to him.
Dicks was arrested on Sept. 6 in New York on a warrant from Louisiana charging him with "gambling by computer." Louisiana is one of eight states with express written laws prohibiting online gambling.
New York, however, is not one of those states, and Pataki said the state law did not permit extradition.
Dicks and his legal team have been fighting extradition since his arrest. They defeated it once before on Sept. 14, when Pataki withdrew the warrant for further investigation.
Dicks' attorney, Barry Slotnick, told IGN at the time that an emergency hearing was held the night before at which he petitioned the judge to withdraw the warrant.
"After the hearing," Slotnick added, "counsel for the governor was obviously convinced that the warrant was not valid."
Despite not being able to extradite Dicks, New York Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Affronti told Judge Lopez today that the warrant is still active in Louisiana.
"As far as the Louisiana warrant, that is still in effect'' for other states, she said.
But Dicks' legal team will continue the fight there.