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 This Man Just Lost a Billion Dollars: Now How Bad Was Your Day? -- In the wake of the "Black Friday" gaming legislation the US congress passed last week, billions of dollars in value was wiped off the London stock markets on Monday. Key publicly held online gaming companies such as PartyGaming, 888.com, and SportingBet PLC were hit hard by the sell off. Partygaming and 888 announced that as soon as the bill is signed into law by President Bush that they will immediately cease all US facing operations for real money gambling. Since 80% of PartyGaming's revenue comes from US players, the sell off appears to be justified. Party also just announced it would be cancelling the 115M dividend that was due at the end of this month so it can use those funds to expand operations in non-us markets. 888, with only half of its revenue coming from US players wasn't hit as hard, with its stock merely dropping 30% of its value overnight. Sportingbet PLC which owns a variety of sites including the Paradise Poker brand, hasn't announced yet their plans and is waiting to hear if their international banking partners will be enforcing the new laws on a non US company. Ancilliary non gaming companies such as Neteller and Firepay were also hit hard due to their involvement in the banking side online gaming business. Neteller has announced it is taking a wait and see approach once the banking regulations are finalized within 270 days of the bill passing. We will continue to bring you the latest news on this important topic. |
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