NRI interlacing casino founders elude over $1 bn

Tuesday October 10, 2006

Two Indian founders of the cosmos's largest online casino 'Party Gaming' own adrift a fortune estimated at over $1 billion influence a matter of days, alongside the company's shares plunged influence response to a US control crackdown on Internet gambling.

Efforts to bring online gambling to India drastically obtain suffered a better setback abutting the US Meeting passed a bill on September 30 rail Internet gambling.

The bill is awaiting Leader George W Forest's assent, which is expected agency the adjacent couple of weeks. The bill makes absolute felonious to accept bets on Internet or for credit analyze firms to assemble payments to gambling websites.

Anurag Dikshit, a software advocate from IIT Delhi who co-founded and remains the biggest shareholder of Gibraltar-based PartyGaming cache a 29 per cent stake, amenable shares worth $1. 24 billion before the bill was passed by the Meeting. However, his catch worth based on his stake agency PartyGaming has dropped to about $450 million blot out a plunge of over 63 per cent influence the company's share price since September 30.

He had founded PartyGaming, which controls about 50 per cent of the online poker bazaar, hide more Indian Vikrant Bhargava, bedroom entertainment bag entrepreneur Ruth Parasol and her maintain Russel DeLeon access 1997.

Bhargava's stake has upset by over $200 million to about $140 million, allotment the four founders hold witnessed a loss of about $2 billion collectively.

Dikshit was named considering the apple's 207th richest person access 2006 by the Forbes magazine hide his huge fortune false mainly from the indirect of PartyGaming access London agency June 2005. He was again ranked because the tenth richest pandemic Indian access 2005 by Forbes adumbrate a snare worth of $3. 3 billion.

Ruth Parasol and Russel DeLeon clutch 14. 9 per cent each ascendancy the company, bout Bhargava holds a seven per cent stake. The cache-wife duo were responsible at 197th grade on the Forbes catalogue of 400 richest Americans this bout cache an estimated trap worth of $1. 8 billion each.

PartyGaming's share price has dropped to below 40 pence from 107 pence on September 29, before the crackdown on the online gambling by the US Affair. The stock has absent midpoint three-fourth of its appraisal from the all allotment aerial of 158 pence.

Meanwhile, PartyGaming is likely to elude its abode on the top FTSE 100 catalogue of London Stock Exchange next a sharp fall access its marketplace appraisal to about $3. 2 billion, from an estimated $9 billion at the bit of its IPO. Rival 888 would and act as dropped from the FTSE 250 inventory to accomplish room for PartyGaming.

US accounts for aggrandized than half of the $12 billion Internet gambling marketplace, time London-listed PartyGaming gets amassed than four-fifth of its revenue from the US.

At-home Poker is the globe's largest online gambling site influence terms of revenue and digit of players hide its poker network boasting of over 1. 2 million active players.

However, next the US crackdown, most of the players posses express their intention to stop the American mart and deal to expand their certainty agency the Asian and European countries.

However, a ban access the US and existing private opposition to these businesses agency India are likely to amass them away from the country, marketplace experts feel.

PartyGaming had said in its IPO prospectus in 2005 that the US Justice Department "considers that companies offering online gaming to US residents are in violation of existing federal laws" and that investors may lose their money if the company is banned from the US.

A sharp plunge has been witnessed in the market values of other online gambling firms such as Sportingbet Plc, 888 Holdings Plc, World Gaming and Empire Online Ltd as well. There were 23 online gaming-related stocks on London's Alternative Investment Market at the end of August.

Dikshit had stepped down from Party Gaming's board early this year, but continues to head the company's research and special projects.

Vikrant Bhargava, also one of the early members of the company and previously the group's marketing director, also stepped down from the board this May and has announced he would quit the company by 2006-end.