Is Bodog Empire Losing Its Emperor?

Does Calvin Ayre's departure from Bodog indicate that he is tired of the cat-and-mouse game with US anti-online gambling authorities? Or is it a ploy to allow him to refuel before the next round in the struggle for existence?

Ayre, 47, became involved in the online gambling industry in the late 1990s, and founded Bodog in 2000. It was a successful launch.

He promoted Bodog as a lifestyle, along the lines of Richard Branson's Virgin and Hugh Hefner's Playboy. He also diversified into music, mixed martial arts and film, which attracted more attention to the website.

By 2006, the company was generating more than $7 billion in wagers in the US, making it the seventh-largest online gambling company in the world. That year, Forbes magazine featured Ayre on the cover of its March issue as one of the world's 794 billionaires. People magazine named him one of its 40 hottest bachelors. Ayre hosts lavish parties for Bodog's bigger clients, with the famous Bodog Girls, usually found poolside, wearing bikinis.

By all appearances, Ayre was living a charmed life. Then his past came back to haunt him. Reporters revealed he had been implicated in a marijuana-trafficking ring in 1987. He was not charged, but his father and brother in law received lengthy jail terms.

Reporters also revealed he was involved in a shady Vancouver company. In 1996, he admitted to serious stock offences and agreed to a 20-year suspension from the British Columbia securities market.

Ayre announced he had transferred ownership of Bodog last year to the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group, which runs hundreds of gaming websites from the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal.

This was news indeed. Last September, Ayre announced he had licensed Bodog's North American operations to the Morris Mohawk Group, but there was no indication he had transferred ownership. Are we looking at another Ayre sleight-of-hand?