Canadian billionaire Calvin Ayre said "inaccurate information" led Costa Rican national police to raid his home.

"Some local tabloids had erroneously reported that we had gambling going on here," Ayre told CTV Newsnet by phone on Sunday.

"It all sounds incredulous to people in North America to believe it, but the entire affidavit police swore in front of a judge, in order to get the search warrant to come into my place, ... was based on inaccurate information in a tabloid article."

Ayre is president of the gambling website Bodog.com, recently profiled by Forbes magazine. The website allows gamblers to bet on sports games and other events.

Gambling is illegal in Costa Rica, although police are not investigating Ayre's website. Instead, they apparently suspected the 44-year-old Ayre of organizing a poker tournament at his home.

Ayre said he is actually holding a simulated poker tournament. Amateur players compete against professionals but do not use their money to gamble. Instead, they can win prizes that Ayre has financed.

He said that he is aware of Costa Rica's laws concerning gambling and denied doing anything illegal.

"The location of Costa Rica was originally chosen based on gaming laws," Ayre said. "I was legally able to set up business down here. Every place where I operate I make sure that we are really strict about complying with all local laws."

When police entered Ayre's $3.9-million home, they apparently expected to find an actual poker game involving gambling. Instead, they encountered a television crew filming a party scene for the simulated tournament.

Police reportedly seized computer discs and a notebook computer before leaving.

Ayre was born on a pig farm in Lloydminster, Sask., and attended the University of Waterloo in Ontario.

He started Bodog.com 10 years ago and has since extended his business interests to music marketing and publishing. He said his Forbes profile was a "dream come true."

"I knew that they were going to do an article on me. I didn't know they were going to atually feature me on the cover itself," he said. "It was a huge honour for me to be put on there."

With files from The Canadian Press