No sooner did Bodog get their domain back, than Calvin Ayre reared his head up out of retirement for an interview.

About a year ago, Ayre retired from Bodog after supposedly handing over the company to the Morris Mohawk Gaming Group (MMGG) in some sort of licensing deal.

At the time, I figured it wasn't the last we had seen of Mr. Ayre, and while I was correct, I must admit that he held himself out of the news for a lot longer than I thought was possible for somebody with his ego.

But it sounds like Ayre is warming up for a comeback. In that way, he's kinda sounding like Pat Riley... when things go sour, he drops out of sight; but when things start to turn around he'll pop right back up as if he never left.

Anyway, I must admit that I got some guilty pleasure from reading the interview. It offers some delicious bits of revisionist history.

For instance, I am loving the twist that Ayre and MMGG is putting on the deal to get back the bodog.com domain... Something to do with shell companies being already out of business in 2006.

Yeah, right. And that's why it took two years to get the domain back, and when you did it was through a licensing deal.

From the outside it looks like a classic zero-sum situation. Neither side had anything to gain by holding out anymore, so they cut a deal. It's business.

 But the real gem is when Ayre gives this statement:

"It’s funny - I often hear people say that “Bodog” never left the US market following the passage of the UIGEA.  I suppose in a way that’s true, as the brand continued to thrive there, but in a deeper sense, the operation that was “Bodog” pre-2006 did, in fact, leave the US. The fact that the customer experience was seamless is only testament to the enormous efforts of the MMGG transition team as they moved everything to the MMGG offices in Kahnawake."

What?!?

I wish this interview was on video so I could see if he was smiling when he said those words. Because the words betray a shocking misunderstanding of the situation, if not an outright insult to the intelligence of the audience. Since Calvin Ayre definitely knows the situation, I can only assume he was joking.

As far as the American government, and indeed the international community is concerned, if you are accepting online gambling business from American customers, then you are in the American gambling market.

As far as I know, Bodog has never left the American market. Even now, despite the fact they are located on the Kahnawake reserve in Canada, they are still technically in the American market because they still take bets from Americans.

Now, we can all debate the merits of the American government's ridiculous argument that American laws apply to foreign companies in foreign jurisdictions, but one thing that is not is question is whether or not Bodog was or is in the American market.

They were. They are. They will be.

The only question for me now is how long it will take before Ayre gets the itch to get back into the mainstream spotlight.

I've heard semi-realistic rumors about a multi-million dollar bounty on Ayre's head in America. And the DOJ has set the bar for financial settlements with its recent deals with PartyGaming and one of its founders.

But PartyGaming actually DID exit the American market after the UIGEA was passed, something that Bodog - despite Ayre's statements otherwise - has yet to do.

Given those facts, and the fact that Ayre was undoubtably the most public figure in the American online gambling business for a number of years, it would be hard to see the DOJ cut any deal with Ayre at all that didn't include some sort of jail time... and several hundred million dollars.

So, it will probably be a while before we see Calvin Ayre back in America.