APORTLY, balding, be-suited chap nonchalantly slam-dunks a basketball while balancing a laptop in his other hand. 'Looking for great sports action? Get it through the Net!' shouts the bold black blurb.
Meet Alan Weinrib, or 'Big Al', as he prefers to be known. Veteran Dublin bookmaker. Las Vegas and Atlantic City poker identity. And lately, thorn in the side of the Hong Kong Government, thanks to his Antigua-based Internet betting Web site, Easybets.com.
It's a somewhat absurd - if eye-catching - image that greets those logging on to the site; the big-bellied bookie happily admits the closest he'd get to a real slam-dunk would be with a step-ladder. No more absurd, however, than the attempt last month to introduce Weinrib's Web site to Hong Kong's punting public.
What was planned as a straightforward press conference promptly degenerated into a surreal piece of theatre that would have done Beckett proud, with a supporting cast including baffled reporters, anti-triad detectives, paper-shuffling bureaucrats, frantic spin-doctors and a posh, scandal-shy club. The only person missing was the star of the show - Weinrib.
Safely ensconced back in Dublin, Weinrib was this week philosophical about the botched beano. His mistake, he says, was including a page on his site where punters could wager on Hong Kong's Mark Six. This raised the ire of the Jockey Club, which has an exclusive licence to run lotteries in the SAR, and attracted a visit from the local constabulary just hours before the press conference was to go ahead in the plush surrounds of the American Club's Presidents Room.
'We weren't actually running a lottery,' Weinrib explains. 'We were offering a service where punters could bet on, say, one or two or three numbers drawn in the Mark Six. This sort of thing is very popular in the US and in Britain.