PartyGaming Settles With USA
Today PartyGaming agreed to pay a $105 million sum to the United States government in turn for protection from prosecution for the company’s ten years of illegal operations in the United States market. The “Non-Prosecution Agreement” will be paid off over three years and provides complete legal protection to PartyGaming Plc, which is the publicly traded parent company of Party Poker, Party Casino, and other gaming products.
This agreement came just months after PartyGaming’s biggest shareholder, Anurag Dikshit, turned himself in to the USA government and agreed to pay $300 million in fines for violating Internet gambling laws.
Both fines were levied as a result of Party Poker’s extended and very successful stay in the US market from 1997 until 2006, when the UIGEA law was created. After the UIGEA went into effect, Party Gaming quickly left the USA market to cooperate with the new law, but USA prosecutors claim that previous laws prevented Party from operating in the USA market from 1997 to 2006, and so the fines and prosecutions came about.
Although this all sounds like bad news for PartyGaming and online poker in general, many people in the industry are thrilled about this settlement, and feel that it is a big step towards opening up the USA market once more. Party has cooperated with the United States multiple times now, so if anyone comes back soon we have a feeling it will be Party Poker.
Today’s news caused overseas gambling stocks to shoot up, as many analysts see this as a huge step towards re-entering the USA market. If companies like PartyGaming are allowed to return to the USA you can bet that their revenues will soar and player traffic will grow exponentially.
From a player standpoint this is excellent news, especially if you’re a player in the United States. At the moment the USA market is cloudy, murky, and even scary to some. No one really knows what the current laws mean, and it is much harder to deposit at an online poker site now than it was even six months ago. If the USA ends up regulating online poker and lets reputable companies like Party Poker back into the market, it is likely we’ll see online payment processors like NETeller open back up for gambling, and it will once again be a breeze to deposit and withdraw.
Make sure to keep checking back as we’ll have up to the minute updates on any future developments in this potentially amazing ordeal.
Party Poker is still one of the most highly trafficked poker sites in the world, even though they no longer accept USA players. They offer software in over a dozen languages, and have world class software that attracts players from many different countries. Party Poker is currently offering a 100% up to $500 bonus for all new depositors that use bonus code WITT500 - if you’d like to redeem the bonus, head over to PartyPoker.com and create your account. Remember to use bonus code WITT500 to redeem the maximum $500 bonus. Good luck!
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Mike Wittmeyer is the founder and owner of PokerSite.org, and does the majority of the writing for the site. He has played online poker for over five years now, and has also played at several live casinos around the world. Mike has been writing about online poker and poker strategy for over three years now, and owns several other online poker and online casino websites. Learn more about Mike at his personal blog, MikeWittmeyer.com.