Garber Maintains Online Casino Shares
The United States is still negotiating terms and applicable punishments for
online casino companies that operated in the U.S. prior to the Unlawful Internet
Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Several companies, 888.com, PartyGaming, and
others have chosen to fully cooperate with U.S. authorities rather than risk
potential more serious litigation in the future. Most online casinos industry
analysts predict that PartyGmaing will get off with only slight repercussions
because the company immediately withdrew from the U.S. market once the UIEGA
took effect. Some companies continued, and continue to operate internet gambling
sites despite the ban – but PartyGaming instead just faces judgement form the
U.S. Department of Justice for gambling offenses prior to the UIEGA.
As the negotiations with the Department of Justice continued, PartyGaming lost
some of its value in the international online casino gambling industry – many
companies are waiting on the U.S. decision before partnering, investing, or
purchasing PartyGaming. And for a time, it seemed that even the CEO of
PartyGaming assumed the negotiations with the U.S. would go south. CEO Mitch
Garber has sold many of his stock options in the online casinos company over the
past several months. But Garber recently decided to halt his previous plans to
sell a huge portion of his existing stock options.
Garber’s confidence in the strength of the online casino company’s stock makes
many speculate that discussions with the U.S. DoJ must be going well. Other
industry analysts continue to assert that even with Garber’s decision to keep
his 8.75 million shares in the company, that PartyGaming will be severely
punished for operating in the U.S. online casinos industry.
|