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Job losses at Neteller as US law bites
Gambling crackdown to blame

By Tim Ferguson

Published: Friday 16 February 2007

Neteller, the online payment processing group, is to shed around 250 jobs at sites in Canada and the UK.

Around 220 jobs will go at the group's contact centre and security operations in Calgary, Canada.

A further 30 roles will be lost in the UK, when operations move from Gatwick to Cambridge in March.

Neteller said in a statement the job losses were the result of a "reorganisation and restructuring of its operations".

The company's services were used extensively for payments made to online gambling sites before a change in US law last year made that type of transaction illegal.

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Since then there has been a mass withdrawal of online gambling companies from the US, prompting Neteller to follow suit.

A Neteller spokesman said the job losses are a direct result of the recent changes in US online gambling laws.

Since Neteller stopped processing payments for US residents, transfer volume and customer enquiries have "decreased substantially".

Of plans to grow the business following the withdrawal from the US, the Neteller spokesman said: "The company is looking to expand in Europe and in Asia in particular."

The group will continue with its current business and has "plenty of product areas [it] can expand into", he added.