This one hit the markets running today. Despite negative publicity it was well supported so I jumped in for a small holding--anyone else joining in?? I am hoping for a good run up before the shorters get going.

ST

only trying to help in answer to a question

Fundy, I appreciate that, and didn't mean to cause anyone any offence. I apologise if offence was felt. You're right in what you say.

who needs friggin America...shareprice has fallen to this over emphasis on yankeeland...hundreds more countries to be in...the growth story has just begun

more maesto supreme rubbish ..... what's this guy on? .... methane overdose?

President Bush is costing me a bomb!

yes he cost me a bomb on 911 too...i wish i had his foresight to put a put option on airline stocks a couple of days before 911

cynic have a look in your email box. Please confirm you have received your mail.

maestro: Friggin America, as you put it, is needed because that's where the customers are. The fact that the U.S. is reinforcing its antiquated laws on 'wire' based gambling to protect its own huge and lucrative gaming industry is no different from the French fiddling with laws to keep British lamb and beef exports out.

The Americans may well be harnessing the righteous indignation of the minority vociferous religious right to the cause -- but that's no different to the French harnessing 'health concerns' to theirs to placate their vociferous and influential farmers.

Citywire. On-line gaming devastated as US plans to ban banks making payments

The signature of US president George Bush on a shock piece of legislation will effectively outlaw payments for on-line gaming and turn a booming industry into one of potential bust.

Big players like PartyGaming, Sportingbet and 888 Holdings have been rushed into issuing profit warnings and say they are likely to pull out of the US market which is where most of their income comes from.

All the shares were hit hard. Market leader PartyGaming saw its share price crash by over 60% before settling at 47.75p, down 59.375p or 55.49%.

On Saturday the US Congress approved The Safe Port Act which was passed to the House of Representatives and Senate which forwarded it to the White House for the president's signature which will make it law.

When passed, the act will simply make it illegal for banks and credit card companies to approve payments for on-line gambling sites.

Given that the US authorities have made their disapproval of on-line gaming clear with the arrest of Sportingbet chairman Peter Dicks in New York last month and BETonSports chief executive in Dallas in July, the president's signature is expected in the next two weeks.

Efforts to outlaw on-line gaming in the US have been getting nowhere fast. The Safe Port Act has caught the industry by surprise in that it doesn't outlaw on-line gaming, but prevents the participants from paying for it.

Provisions in the bill, in a section labelled the 'Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006', outlaw the processing of payments between US gamblers and on-line gaming companies.

Although the act makes unlawful the receipt by a gambling business of proceeds or money in connection with unlawful internet gambling, it does not clarify the definition of unlawful gambling.

But PartyGaming says that if the bill is signed it will be practically impossible for it to provide US residents with access to its real money poker and other real money gaming sites.

'If the President signs the act into law, PartyGaming will suspend all real money gaming business with US residents, and such suspension will continue indefinitely, subject to clarification of the interpretation and enforcement of US law and the impact on financial institutions of this and other related legislation' it says in a statement to the Stock Exchange.

Scott Longley, editor of Egaming Review said: Theres going to be no dead cat bounce on this one. This pussy is well and truly flattened'.

PartyGaming PR man John Shepherd shares Longleys pessimism: The measure outlaws the processing of payments between US customers and on-line gaming companies. It makes it practically impossible for us to provide any US resident with our real money online gaming service.

Sportingbet is more optimistic. It points out that its 'non-US international banking partners' will first have to determine whether the new act applies to them.

It also notes that the law explicitly exempts US gambling interests and it is seeking clarification as to the legality of this under US commitments to the World Trade General Agreement of Trade and Services.

But the stock market has assumed that the on-line gamblers will lose all their US revenues and has cut share prices by the percentage of business which comes from the USA.

Lumley reckons that PartyGaming will lose 60% of its business. He thinks 888, down from 146.5p to 95p, and Sportingbet, down from 184.25p to 79p, have similar percentage shares from the USA.

He says the percentage will be even higher for Leisure and Gaming, down more than two thirds from 38p to just 12p, and adds that World Gaming, down from 64p to 12.75p, is practically entirely US-based.

Of the larger on-line operators only Ladbrokes and William Hill have no US customers. William Hill shares were down 2p at 641.5p, while Ladbrokes was up 1.5p at 390.5p.

The big question now is whether other countries follow the US lead. And is there any sort of fight back in the US?

Longley claims that other European countries cant simply ban something which is perfectly legal in the UK, and says that EU law makes it hard to ban on-line gambling.

Both he and Shepherd claim that the Safe Port Act has been pushed through to protect US gambling monopolies including state lotteries, horse racing and Las Vegas.


Citywire verdict: Although the new act has caught the industry by surprise, the writing has been on the wall for sometime and the big players have been expanding outside the US as fast they as can.

As the US has always regulated gambling, the question has often been posed about how long it would allow a new bunch of web-based players near unlimited access to its wallets of its gambling addicted citizens?

The Safe Port Act doesn't outlaw gambling so much as they way it is paid for, so it will doubtless be challenged in the courts.

Although the moral standards may be duplicitous, given the strength of the Christian Right in the US and the countrys puritan past, it is difficult to imagine a successful legal challenge.

Huge losses for net gamblers
By James Quinn, Business Correspondent (Filed: 03/10/2006)

More than 3.5bn was wiped from the value of Britain's leading internet gaming companies, with PartyGaming, the world's biggest online poker company, seeing its market value slashed by 2.5bn.

The price collapse saw its shares plummet 62 to 45p a 58pc fall which means the shares are highly likely to be removed from the FTSE 100 blue-chip index at the next FTSE reshuffle in December.

PartyGaming, the world's biggest poker site, had a market value of 4.28bn at the close of trading on Friday. When it opens this morning, that value will have fallen to just 1.8bn, some 1bn less than a new company would need to be capitalised at to enter the FTSE 100.

Its removal from the FTSE 100 would end a remarkable 16 months for the company, which at its peak was worth 7bn more than twice the market capitalisation of British Airways.

But PartyGaming was just one of many sufferers in the market yesterday, with fellow sizeable online gamers such as Sportingbet and 888 Holdings bearing the brunt of the effects of the new bill, which follows a number of high-profile arrests in the sector.

Sportingbet, whose chairman Peter Dicks was released from US custody on Friday after the Governor of New York chose not to sign an extradition order requested by the state of Louisiana, saw its shares fall from 184.25p to 73p, a 60.3pc fall.

Shares in 888 Holdings, whose flotation chief executive John Anderson stepped down recently, fell 26.1pc, off 38.25 to 108.25p.

Gigi Levy, who replaced Mr Anderson as 888's chief executive, told The Daily Telegraph: "It is the end of online gambling in the US as we know it. This is the first time a federal bill has been passed that specifically deals with online gambling.

"In the past all the others were old acts that had to be tweaked, like the wire act. The big thing here is that we now have a clear congressional view to say it is illegal."

The new federal law relating to internet gambing was passed late on Friday as part of the Safe Port Act in the US, designed to combat terrorist activities at American ports, which at the last minute had certain provisions known as the 'Unlawful Gambling Internet Act of 2006' inserted into it. The Act is expected to be signed by President Bush who has used his veto just once in his near-six years as President - within 14 days.

The effect of the new law, which will be implemented within 270 days, will make it illegal for banks and credit card companies to process online gaming payments from the US. Both PartyGaming and 888 announced they were suspending real-money US transactions, while Sportingbet said it intended to comply with the new law.

Lawyers for all the big companies involved in the sector are understood to have considered the viability of a legal challenge, but the legislation is thought to be so watertight that such a challenge would be futile.

Online gambling groups are now expected to refocus on European and Asian markets.

way things are shaping up this is going to fly straight past the 250 and join Sportingbet in AIM !!!!!

I have thought about how the US could bar their citizens from visiting these gambling sites, and thought it may not be possible US implement a super proxy server that would filter all visits to these gambling sites from America. Never thought they would bar the transactions.

Anyway, looking at how things are developing. One could pray President Bush is going to use his veto (Not likely) or one could buy into the upside that Party Gaming still have 270 days to get its lawyers together to challenge the Act.

I can see a lot of gambling companies would be issuing profit warning in weeks/months to come. Abandon ship while you still can afford to absorb the loses. After two of such warnings that comes along, you will be down with the sinking ship.

PRTY divi has now been cancelled.

To me, a cancelled divi means the share is not worth 40p, probably not even 20p.
Only IMHO, NAG, DYOR etc.

Interesting to see if 888 cancel both of their divi's on the 11th Oct.

I have my own way of valuing the stock, based on my calculation, not to disappoint those who are already deep in red, I think there will be many more profit warning to come and there is still a very long downward trend to follow from this position. But again, I won't go short my position to prove me right. I will avoid this share, there are plenty of other shares which has better prospects and does not have its entire market exposure built around one geographical area alone.

Err PRTY? it's ENTIRE market exposure is not in the US sikhlaw, a high % may have been but not the entire market. Sorry but felt that needed correction.

if the consequences had not been so dire for some "friends" on here, could have been more jokey with posts/puns like "The party's over for PRTY", which I am afraid is the truth nevertheless.

PRTY may have been the largest online gaming company till Sat. But takes away the US, will it dominate in any other markets, may even had to be content with much less??? Low entry cost, good cash flow and high profit margins (eg. easy money) in online gaming will attract many able and determined competitors.

UKB is already well established and totally non-US involved