Internet poker company PartyGaming open for U.S. sale, bad news?

One of the biggest online poker companies PartyGaming is testing the waters with Las Vegas casinos.

Internet poker company PartyGaming open for U.S. sale, bad news? In an interview with the Financial Times, Mitch Garber, the chief executive officer of PartyGaming, said that the company is seeking to hear offers for a buyout by big casino players in Las Vegas. Garber refused to comment if there are talks on the way with a specific U.S. gambling company.

PartyGaming, which operates the online poker room Party Poker, has a market cap of $2.5 billion and talks about a sale are quite troublesome for the online gambling industry - no one wants to sell a winning horse. After the introduction of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which made financial transactions in the U.S. to Internet gambling websites illegal, PartyGaming was among many online gambling companies to stop allowing U.S. residents to play poker on their websites. Those gambling websites are now left with only a few European countries, after the Asian and South American markets turned out a bust.

The fact that PartyGaming is looking for a sale compliments our view on the online gambling market - without the USA players there will be room for only a handful of Internet gambling companies to remain profitable, mostly in the sports betting sector of the industry. Don't believe the hype, unless you are being approached, "a sale" means that someone is trying to get rid of something.

Published on 10/10/2007