advanced poker play

Some good news for all online poker fans is that that PartyPoker, one of the best and original online poker websites, looks set to return to the USA. Those of you that have been playing online poker since before 2007 will undoubtedly remember that PartyPoker was incredibly popular until good old “George” pushed through the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in October 2006.

First they left the poker party.

Taking what they then thought was the sensible long-term view; the owners of PartyPoker effectively took the company out of the USA, going public on the UK London Stock Exchange (LSE) as PartyGaming; in order to expand their operation into other areas of gambling and gaming. Prior to listing on the LSE, PartyPoker was valued at around $8.5 billion – more than many major and well known international companies. Although not the only online poker site to relocate out of the USA – PartyPoker took a real hammering as soon as the UIGEA became law, indeed in total some $8 billion was wiped off the online gambling companies.

Then they bought themselves back in to the poker party.

However, some of the privately owned online poker and gambling websites continued to ride their luck with the US authorities and, with the Department of Justice seemingly unwilling to rush into prosecutions, they have been making hundreds of millions from their online activities in the USA. Subsequently, and with what would seem to be a deal on the horizon for legitimizing online poker again in the USA, PartyGaming wants back in to the poker party in the USA – now! By agreeing to pay a whopping $105 million to ensure that the DoJ doesn’t try to enforce its retro legislation regarding  online poker websites before the UIGEA became law – PartyGaming is confident of being looked upon favorably by both Federal and State legislators.

Where PartyGaming lead – others might follow.

With PartyGaming about to re-enter the market with virtual green lights to at least operate immediately in Colorado, Pennsylvania and South Carolina; who all found poker to be a game of skill, companies like Full Tilt and PokerStars had better watch out – whilst 888 can’t surely be far behind PartyGaming in making their peace with the DoJ.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 9:30 am and is filed under News, features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.