Tempi duri per le società di betting.....
Inviato: 02/10/2006 - 17:50
Tempi duri per le società di gambling....oggi Partygaming perde più del 50%....vi allego la notizia se avete voglia di leggerla....
PartyGaming, Sportingbet Plunge on U.S. Gambling Law (Update7)
2006-10-02 11:22 (New York)
(Adds background on PartyGaming founder from 18th paragraph.)
By Neil Craven
Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Shares of PartyGaming Plc, Sportingbet
Plc and 888 Holdings Plc plummeted, wiping out $7 billion of
market value, after Congress passed laws to shut down Internet
gambling in the U.S.
Legislation to prevent credit-card companies from collecting
payments for bets was approved Sept. 30 in the closing hours of
the congressional session, the culmination of a U.S. clampdown on
online gaming. PartyGaming, the world's biggest Internet poker
company, will stop taking wagers from its 900,000 American
players. Its stock lost as much as 62 percent.
``The U.S. government has found a way to make life almost
impossible'' for gambling Web sites, said Philippe Gijsels,
senior equity strategist at Fortis Bank SA's private investment
unit in Brussels, which manages $62 billion. The companies ``will
have to regroup and rethink their business model,'' he said.
The U.S. accounts for about half of the $12 billion Internet
gambling market and considers the industry illegal. PartyGaming
is among more than 2,000 offshore companies operating poker and
sports-betting Web sites. Authorities have detained British
executives of Web bookmakers visiting the U.S., including David
Carruthers of Betonsports Plc, who was charged by a federal grand
jury in July with illegal interstate gambling.
PartyGaming, the world's biggest Internet poker company, got
more than four-fifths of its sales from the U.S. last year. The
company is based in Gibraltar and trades in London.
``This development is a significant setback for our company,
our shareholders, our players and our industry,'' PartyGaming
Chief Executive Officer Mitch Garber said in a statement.
Shares Tumble
PartyGaming shares slid 59.5 pence, or 56 percent, to 47.5
pence at 4 p.m. in London, reaching a record low 40.25 pence. It
was the biggest decliner in the U.K.'s benchmark FTSE 100 Index.
``This bill was having trouble getting through Congress so a
lot of investors thought this was not going to happen,'' said
Brian Tora, investment director at Gerrard Ltd. in London.
``Suddenly no one really knows how much these companies are going
to make in terms of profit.''
The measure, added to unrelated legislation providing $3.4
billion for port security, was passed before Congress recesses to
campaign for the Nov. 7 elections.
``I can't believe they actually managed to get it through,''
said Jamie Coleman, who holds PartyGaming shares among the $550
million he helps manage at EFG Wealth Management in London. ``I'm
pretty damn shocked, and I'm pretty damn shocked at the way they
went about doing it as well.''
U.S. President George W. Bush will sign the bill into law,
said White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore. No date has been
set for the signing.
Bank Regulations
``Internet gambling has been illegal since the inception of
the Internet, but there has been no way to enforce it,''
Representative James Leach, an Iowa Republican, said Sept. 30. By
making it ``illegal to use a financial instrument to settle an
Internet wager,'' Congress is ``putting responsibility on the
financial community,'' Leach said.
The legislation directs the Federal Reserve and Department
of Justice to issue regulations within nine months to banks
establishing policies and procedures for blocking transactions.
``There was an assumption tied into the price of these
stocks that the legislation was not going to make it through,''
said Paul Leyland, an analyst at Arbuthnot Securities in London.
Unless Congress can ensure the act will be policed, ``this could
very quickly transpire to be a toothless piece of legislation,''
he added. ``The devil of all this will be in the detail.''
Poker Industry
The American Gaming Association, which represents casino
operators based in Las Vegas and elsewhere, had asked Congress to
fund a commission that would study whether online gambling can be
regulated and taxed in the U.S. The lobby group's hope is a study
may eventually let major casino operators such as MGM Mirage and
Harrah's Entertainment Inc. enter the online business.
Harrah's, the world's largest casino operator, today said it
received a $15.1 billion takeover offer from Apollo Management LP
and Texas Pacific Group.
PartyGaming controlled about 50 percent of the online poker
market at the start of this year. Its PartyPoker site is the
world's largest online poker gaming venue with about 38 percent
of the market in December 2005, three times more than its nearest
rival, it has said.
Founder's Losses
The company was founded by a group including Anurag Dikshit,
PartyGaming's former operations director, in 1997. With 1.5
billion shares, or 29 percent of the equity, he remains the
company's biggest investor, the company said. Today's plunge
wiped out about 700 million pounds from his holdings, according
to Bloomberg calculations.
PartyGaming's IPO made Dikshit the 207th richest person in
the world in 2006, according to Forbes magazine's web site.
The poker industry has grown as events including the World
Series of Poker encourage more people to play games such as Texas
Hold'em online. According to research company Christensen Capital
Advisors, online poker grew to a $1 billion business in 2004 from
$90 million in 2002.
PartyGaming sold shares to the public in June 2005. It said
in its prospectus that the Justice Department ``considers that
companies offering online gaming to U.S. residents are in
violation of existing federal laws'' and that investors may lose
their money if the company is banned from the U.S.
`Devastating Loss'
888 said suspending its U.S. operations will have a
``material adverse impact'' on earnings. Chief Operating Officer
Gigi Levy said on a conference call that about half the company's
revenue comes from U.S. clients. Its stock lost as much as 50
percent and fell 27 percent to 106.75 pence at 4 p.m.
``We will step up a gear in terms of looking at the rest of
the world,'' said 888 Chief Executive Officer John Anderson.
``It's a devastating loss. Most of the rest of the world is quite
sensible in terms of regulation. If you look at the prohibition
of booze in the U.S., gangsters made a lot of money from that.''
Sportingbet tumbled as much as 73 percent to 49.75 pence.
The company today said the U.S. rules prompted it to abandon
talks to buy World Gaming Plc, whose shares slid 76 percent
today. Former Sportingbet Chairman Peter Dicks, facing
extradition to Louisiana, was set free last week by New York
authorities.
There were 23 online gaming-related stocks on London's
Alternative Investment Market at the end of August.
Empire Online Ltd., whose online gambling brands include
Club Dice, fell as much as 24 pence, or 36 percent, to 43 pence.
Leisure & Gaming Plc, whose brands include VIPsports, lost 73
percent to 10.5 pence in London. NETeller Plc, a U.K. provider of
money transfers for Internet gaming, fell 215 pence, or 61
percent, to 140 pence.
Excapsa Software Inc., a Toronto-based maker of software for
gambling Web sites, slid 66 percent to 15 pence in London.
CryptoLogic Inc., another Canadian maker of online gambling
software, plunged 25 percent in Toronto.
Playtech Ltd. a British Virgin Islands-based company that
also develops gaming software, tumbled 52 percent to 120 pence.
Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG slid 27 percent in Vienna.
-
PartyGaming, Sportingbet Plunge on U.S. Gambling Law (Update7)
2006-10-02 11:22 (New York)
(Adds background on PartyGaming founder from 18th paragraph.)
By Neil Craven
Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Shares of PartyGaming Plc, Sportingbet
Plc and 888 Holdings Plc plummeted, wiping out $7 billion of
market value, after Congress passed laws to shut down Internet
gambling in the U.S.
Legislation to prevent credit-card companies from collecting
payments for bets was approved Sept. 30 in the closing hours of
the congressional session, the culmination of a U.S. clampdown on
online gaming. PartyGaming, the world's biggest Internet poker
company, will stop taking wagers from its 900,000 American
players. Its stock lost as much as 62 percent.
``The U.S. government has found a way to make life almost
impossible'' for gambling Web sites, said Philippe Gijsels,
senior equity strategist at Fortis Bank SA's private investment
unit in Brussels, which manages $62 billion. The companies ``will
have to regroup and rethink their business model,'' he said.
The U.S. accounts for about half of the $12 billion Internet
gambling market and considers the industry illegal. PartyGaming
is among more than 2,000 offshore companies operating poker and
sports-betting Web sites. Authorities have detained British
executives of Web bookmakers visiting the U.S., including David
Carruthers of Betonsports Plc, who was charged by a federal grand
jury in July with illegal interstate gambling.
PartyGaming, the world's biggest Internet poker company, got
more than four-fifths of its sales from the U.S. last year. The
company is based in Gibraltar and trades in London.
``This development is a significant setback for our company,
our shareholders, our players and our industry,'' PartyGaming
Chief Executive Officer Mitch Garber said in a statement.
Shares Tumble
PartyGaming shares slid 59.5 pence, or 56 percent, to 47.5
pence at 4 p.m. in London, reaching a record low 40.25 pence. It
was the biggest decliner in the U.K.'s benchmark FTSE 100 Index.
``This bill was having trouble getting through Congress so a
lot of investors thought this was not going to happen,'' said
Brian Tora, investment director at Gerrard Ltd. in London.
``Suddenly no one really knows how much these companies are going
to make in terms of profit.''
The measure, added to unrelated legislation providing $3.4
billion for port security, was passed before Congress recesses to
campaign for the Nov. 7 elections.
``I can't believe they actually managed to get it through,''
said Jamie Coleman, who holds PartyGaming shares among the $550
million he helps manage at EFG Wealth Management in London. ``I'm
pretty damn shocked, and I'm pretty damn shocked at the way they
went about doing it as well.''
U.S. President George W. Bush will sign the bill into law,
said White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore. No date has been
set for the signing.
Bank Regulations
``Internet gambling has been illegal since the inception of
the Internet, but there has been no way to enforce it,''
Representative James Leach, an Iowa Republican, said Sept. 30. By
making it ``illegal to use a financial instrument to settle an
Internet wager,'' Congress is ``putting responsibility on the
financial community,'' Leach said.
The legislation directs the Federal Reserve and Department
of Justice to issue regulations within nine months to banks
establishing policies and procedures for blocking transactions.
``There was an assumption tied into the price of these
stocks that the legislation was not going to make it through,''
said Paul Leyland, an analyst at Arbuthnot Securities in London.
Unless Congress can ensure the act will be policed, ``this could
very quickly transpire to be a toothless piece of legislation,''
he added. ``The devil of all this will be in the detail.''
Poker Industry
The American Gaming Association, which represents casino
operators based in Las Vegas and elsewhere, had asked Congress to
fund a commission that would study whether online gambling can be
regulated and taxed in the U.S. The lobby group's hope is a study
may eventually let major casino operators such as MGM Mirage and
Harrah's Entertainment Inc. enter the online business.
Harrah's, the world's largest casino operator, today said it
received a $15.1 billion takeover offer from Apollo Management LP
and Texas Pacific Group.
PartyGaming controlled about 50 percent of the online poker
market at the start of this year. Its PartyPoker site is the
world's largest online poker gaming venue with about 38 percent
of the market in December 2005, three times more than its nearest
rival, it has said.
Founder's Losses
The company was founded by a group including Anurag Dikshit,
PartyGaming's former operations director, in 1997. With 1.5
billion shares, or 29 percent of the equity, he remains the
company's biggest investor, the company said. Today's plunge
wiped out about 700 million pounds from his holdings, according
to Bloomberg calculations.
PartyGaming's IPO made Dikshit the 207th richest person in
the world in 2006, according to Forbes magazine's web site.
The poker industry has grown as events including the World
Series of Poker encourage more people to play games such as Texas
Hold'em online. According to research company Christensen Capital
Advisors, online poker grew to a $1 billion business in 2004 from
$90 million in 2002.
PartyGaming sold shares to the public in June 2005. It said
in its prospectus that the Justice Department ``considers that
companies offering online gaming to U.S. residents are in
violation of existing federal laws'' and that investors may lose
their money if the company is banned from the U.S.
`Devastating Loss'
888 said suspending its U.S. operations will have a
``material adverse impact'' on earnings. Chief Operating Officer
Gigi Levy said on a conference call that about half the company's
revenue comes from U.S. clients. Its stock lost as much as 50
percent and fell 27 percent to 106.75 pence at 4 p.m.
``We will step up a gear in terms of looking at the rest of
the world,'' said 888 Chief Executive Officer John Anderson.
``It's a devastating loss. Most of the rest of the world is quite
sensible in terms of regulation. If you look at the prohibition
of booze in the U.S., gangsters made a lot of money from that.''
Sportingbet tumbled as much as 73 percent to 49.75 pence.
The company today said the U.S. rules prompted it to abandon
talks to buy World Gaming Plc, whose shares slid 76 percent
today. Former Sportingbet Chairman Peter Dicks, facing
extradition to Louisiana, was set free last week by New York
authorities.
There were 23 online gaming-related stocks on London's
Alternative Investment Market at the end of August.
Empire Online Ltd., whose online gambling brands include
Club Dice, fell as much as 24 pence, or 36 percent, to 43 pence.
Leisure & Gaming Plc, whose brands include VIPsports, lost 73
percent to 10.5 pence in London. NETeller Plc, a U.K. provider of
money transfers for Internet gaming, fell 215 pence, or 61
percent, to 140 pence.
Excapsa Software Inc., a Toronto-based maker of software for
gambling Web sites, slid 66 percent to 15 pence in London.
CryptoLogic Inc., another Canadian maker of online gambling
software, plunged 25 percent in Toronto.
Playtech Ltd. a British Virgin Islands-based company that
also develops gaming software, tumbled 52 percent to 120 pence.
Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG slid 27 percent in Vienna.
-