Online poker prohibition could be overturned
Poker Lobby & AGA groups aim to end Online Gambling Bill


The Poker Players Alliance and executives for the American Gaming Association (AGA) say they are hopeful that the recent political changes in the U.S. Congress will help them overturn the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA).

You may recall how the UIGEA was appended onto to the sure-to-be-passed Safe Port Bill when most Senators had already cast their votes and left, in the final hours before the Republican-controlled Congress adjourned for mid-term elections.

The UIGEA, while not making online poker illegal, did made it illegal for banks and financial institutions to process transactions for online gambling sites from U.S. customers when it was signed into law on October 13. Regulations that banks need to comply with have yet to be defined. A Government board has until July 2007 to define them.

AGA President Frank Fahrenkopf said the AGA previously opposed online gambling, saying, "Our policy changed back in April when we took a position that we thought the best way to go was to have an independent commission look at it."

Many analysts around that timeframe noted how online gambling actually lead to previously hesitant players coming to the physical casinos, swelling the number of overall casino visitors, which likely helped change AGA's perspective.

So the AGA board of directors will meet December 6, said Fahrenkopf, to consider whether "to support legislation in the new Congress calling for an independent study of Internet gambling to see if it can be properly regulated, controlled, taxed and licensed here in the United States."

Fahrenkopf pointed out, "My guess is that they are going to say let's go ahead and do it."

This past week Terry Lanni, chief executive of MGM Mirage who is an AGA board member, said the UIGEA is "ridiculous" because it was signed into law Oct. 13 as part of a larger port security bill -- and because it exempted horse races and lotteries, and online bets placed while on American Indian land.

Nevada Representatives Jon Porter and Shelly Berkley had previously introduced a bill to create a Congressional Commission to study Internet Gaming this past May. But the bill died. Noteworthy is that both Porter and Berkley were re-elected last week.

In contrast to the prior Congressional Commission proposed, if the AGA votes for a study it has already said it prefers an independent commission such as the National Academy of Sciences to do the study, noted Fahrenkopf, so results are free from the influence of lobbyists.

AGA's board includes CEOs from some the biggest live casinos in Las Vegas, such as Boyd Gaming CEO William Boyd, Harrah's Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman, MGM Mirage CEO Terri Lanni mentioned above, and Wynn Resorts CEO Stephen Wynn, amongst others.

Many bloggers have remarked if these well known casinos launch their own online gambling sites then a large majority of players will play at them because of brand recognition and huge marketing budgets, causing yet another re-alignment in the online gambling industry.

In an interview with Reuters news service, Fahrenkopf also remarked how the stated goal of the UIGEA was to protect American citizens. Instead, he noted, it caused many legitimate and responsible operators to pull out of the U.S. opening the way for unregulated companies to fill the void, since most US players were likely to continue gambling online.

He did not go as far as many others have to call the legislation Prohibition II, as did Pulitzer Prize-winning writer George F. Will in Newsweek's Oct 23rd edition and U.K. culture secretary, Tessa Jowell.

President of the 120,000-member Poker Players Alliance (PPA), Michael Bolcerek, said that results of the Congressional election have emboldened the PPA.

"Our members and other poker players went to the polls. They influenced the federal election," he said. "In the next 12 months we're confident that we'll get a study commission bill. We think an exemption [for online poker] is in order, as well."

Legal expert professor I. Nelson Rose, of the Whittier Law School, harshly criticized the UIGEA, saying how it is confusing and contradictory with all its exemptions, and noting how a portion of the bill even sanctions Internet betting conducted within states and tribal lands.

"It's a public embarrassment...it's a mess," said Rose. "Eventually I think they'll get Congress to change the law to do for Internet poker exactly what they did for Internet horse racing. It's an exemption but (based on) states' rights."

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Gambling911.com News Wire

Originally published November 20, 2006 1:28 pm ET

Hangon, the US supplied PRTY with approx 75% of its income before prohibition. Whilst its true that the Chinese love to gamble and the market has huge potential in Asia, the future has something to offer. If the US government want to be seen to be fundamentally moral, why is Vegas and every other gambling institution still open in the states? Answer, because they pay tax. The US government were fed up of seeing what they consider to be their money being taken away. With regard to the gaming lisence, if i'd bought it and things changed I would be selling it for what its worth. I would not be giving it away as a few have suggested on this thread. Thats business.

Some sort of code being used today, 3 sales of 49 shares went through as automatic trades every half hour approx. Considering that dealing charges come to almost the value of the sales, either someone is throwing away their stock or signaling someone else. Does anyone know what these codes mean between brokers.

Ooh look, another 1p rise, is this anything to do with the codes.

oilyrag - I like your thinking, it was a very strange group of trades.

lot of upside potential in these shares at current price 30p - dont know why more arent buying. the volatility also makes for good daytrading

upside????? ...... you can see how impressed the market is by the "advanced talks" with Empire ..... why on earth should sp surge if PRTY are buying? ...... not even much if any upside even if PRTY were the target

PartyGaming to Reopen its PartyPoker brand to US Market?
Rumors have been flying in recent days that PartyGaming will reopen its PartyPoker internet poker room to the US market. Following President George W. Bush's signing into law a bill that would curb some forms of internet gambling, PartyGaming abruptly pulled its popular PartyPoker site out of the US market. Many experts believed they did so prematurely. Rumors of a possible PartyGaming announcement regarding its reemergence in the US market first appeared on the PokerNews.com website.

The London Stock Exchange trading PartyGaming was the largest IPO of 2005 in the United Kingdom, and was valued higher than British Airways.

Despite losing approximately 80% of its customer base, PartyPoker is now the number two largest online poker room in the world. In fact, the poker room, which had been neck and neck with Full Tilt Poker, is now drawing a much larger gap in recent weeks according to PokerSiteScout.com.

Following a huge drop in its overall share price back in October, PartyGaming is slowly said to be recovering.

PartyGaming is set to become even larger with the acquisition of one time rival Empire Online.

Noam Lanir, owner of the online gambling company Empire Online, is selling his remaining shares in the beleaguered company to arch-rival PartyGaming for $40 million, it was reported today.

According to a report on PokerNews.com, Lanir appears to be finished with the gambling business following his decision to sell his remaining stake in his company.

Empire used to provide online poker to their players through a Party Poker skin (Empire players played with PartyPoker players but under an EmpirePoker banner, similar to how many of the internet poker networks operate today). The two companies were later involved in a well-publicized falling out when PartyPoker decided to cut their numerous skins.

While rumors regarding PartyGaming's re-entry into the US market cannot be confirmed, Gambling911.com can confirm that the company will embark on a new sports betting format exclusive to Canadian customers, slated to begin in January. The new sportsbook, which would take on the "Party" brand name in some form, was also slated to become a Gambling911.com Endorsed Sportsbook. Gambling911.com has been in the process of revamping its sponsorship platform by entering into contracts with online gambling companies that only offer full service wagering menus (i.e. those that include betting on a wide variety of international sports, full access to lines, extensive future betting opportunities, original bet offerings and novelty propositions, including professional sports player props).

Gambling911.com' aggressive search engine optimization program has resulted in its heavy online poker and sports betting exposure, culminating in heavy media exposure over this past year.

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Christopher Costigan, www.gambling911.com

wish it was possible to edit other people's posts, for then i could highlight all the times maestro's post above (and many many others he has posted) reiterate words like "rumoured" and similar .... the only piece that would seem to have any substance (and even that is prefaced by circumspection) is that Lanir of Empire is selling the rump of his stake to PRTY to $40m ..... wise chap!

WOW maestro ...... hope you filled your boots with these just before Christmas as you said you/we should (you muppet!) ....... 115m new shares are sure going to get that sp surging

But, are the 115m new shares in place of the EOL shares?
I hold EOL & it looks like they are going to offer me PRTY shares for my EOL ones. (Unlike 365, where SKY will not exchange my 365 for anything except cash or loan notes).
If that's the case, it's not really a dilution as PRTY would then have the EOL assets.

well jolly good luck to you! ....... i am not intelligent enough to work out whether or not the extra shares are a dilution of PRTY equity, though my guess is "yes" ...... anyway, who the hell (other than maestro) wants to hold crap shares like PRTY?

Not sure what your reaction is based on cynic.
You seem to be of the opinion that this sector is dead in the water.
I am of the opinion that internet gambling will continue. (The rights & wrongs of the moral arguement don't, imo, come in to this yet). If Europe starts to clamp down, like the U.S., then you may well be right, but until that happens & with the gambling companies consolidating, I believe that the main players will be the only ones to survive. All the little companies will be swallowed up.
PRTY is a main player, imo, though I must admit that I have never held their shares (had SBT, 365 & 888) & for every company that they take over, their position must surely strengthen.

IMHO It's diluting....only if the new business income isn't worth the extra cost. It might seem clever to use shares, but if PRTY is itself undervalued, it would be better to pay cash (due 6-months time, when we can see what we've got)
... Since this is being sold because the owner is moving into investment (I understand), then perhaps it is a distressed sale, therefore earning enhancing. However, there comes a point where PRTY has registered all the World's gamblers and there is no point in buying small companies, unless they have a novel game (for example) which they hold some IP rights to.
The value of PRTY is not just the gamblers, these people are either wealthy, or poor - forget the poor and you have access to high-spenders who will attract advertisers (for up-market goods, etc.). That is the real value of PRTY and why I hold at these prices.
Gambling could be banned, but folk will do it anyway - so better it's Regulated, eh?
What surprises me is that the US-situation was known by all, even people outside PRTY - so why are they re-jigging their Options? Were the Execs so dumb they didn't move the business away from such a large risk....possibly not, but that should tell shareholders those execs don't deserve Options at all....

PRTY and several others were 80/95% reliant on USA for their income and profitability ..... Just a few, like 365, wisely with hindsight, focussed on UK and Europe ..... I fail to see that PRTY will become a properly profitable company any time in the near future if at all - unless you fondly believe that US will change its stance within the next 6/12 months or even within the foreseeable future (i.e. 2/3 years).

I don't know what PRTY's market cap is now, but clearly a fraction of what it was just a few months ago ...... on your logic, that should have made PRTY a cheap snack for someone ..... very clearly no one thought the company of the slightest interest and today's non-movement of PRTY indicates that the market considers similarly (and it is rarely wrong).

Your money; you do as you like, but in my not at all humble opinion, you could make far better use of it in a myriad of other "proper" companies.

Sorry cynic, I think PRTY has interests in Europe and the far East, so whilst US was the Lion's share of profits, it wasn't the whole lot.
Punters were panicked and fell for the low sp, despite good funding and gambling being on the increase. Better to have it in the open than risk it going underground IMHO.
The US situation occurred because good men were caught-out (off guard), the leglislation ws not intended to cover modern gambling over the internet since it hadn't been invented...that's my take...the reality is that US gambling is stopped for now; so PRTY needs to address all other areas PDQ.

Not sure that I agree, hangon(your post 37). Surely most of the revenue comes from punters who sit for hours in online poker rooms & steadily lose their money? And also I can't believe any company would consider that they have the entire global market of gamblers! I do agree that it is very surprising that non of the U.S. facing companies saw what was coming.

Cynic - If the strategy of 365 was correct, then their acquisition was a very good move by SKY. Thus, qed, SKY should now be an attractive share??? :o)

hangon ..... my memory, alzheimerish as i am, is that PRTY achieved at least 90% and maybe 95% of its profits from USA ..... Shares Mag did a synopsis a couple of months back.

harry ..... your premise is not quite logical .... BSB (assume its one and the same) may or may not be a good investment - not currently on my radar ..... while it is true that BSB thought (correctly?) that 365 was something of a snip, it depends how significant an impact that will have on their overall profitability.

Let's suppose for a moment cynic is right, then what possible logic is there to re-jig Exec Options (that old Win-Win freebe) because now the sp has fallen so far they have no incentive? ...seems to me they had the moral incentive (to maintain shareholder value), but not the Competance.
The clampdown on US gambling was entirely expected and demanded robust activity to reduce dependance on the US...but they did nothing as far as I see....if the accounts come out soon, we will see this all too clearly.
It really grieves me that Directrors can issue themselves with large chunks of our company.....Options should be illegal.
For small research companies with no cash there is some logic, so as to keep the Team together until the product reaches the Market....I suggest that when the MKT cap is less than the Turnover, all options should cease, without reward. Furthermore it is possible that any company with a turnover over 2m should not be allowed to offer inducements like Options.... except where a company sp has fallen over more than 12-months and new execs are brought-in then those joining might be justly rewarded with Options (but not many) based on the notion that the sp is restored to former levels for at least 3months. I believe all Options, bonuses and such rewards should be subject to Shareholder appoval with a minimum shareholder presence of 50 non-employees, at the AGM.
I hold PRTY.

http://www.partybets.com
doing really well...

yup .... when PRTY rockets by a whole 0.25p it's time to break out more champagne!