“PartyGaming’s Brilliant Future”

With projected profits of between 5 and 6 billion dollars this year, the online poker site PartyGaming can certainly be viewed as thriving. Its biggest challenge at this point is maintaining a good clean reputation, and hoping the U.S. will pronounce online gambling legal.

According to industry insiders, the online poker site PartyGaming raked in 350 million dollars in profits last year, making its founder and 40% owner Amurag Dikshit quite rich. Dikshit’s friend Vikrant Bhargava didn’t do too shabbily either, as he owns 15% of PartyGaming. And if this year it really does bring in between 5 and 6 billion dollars of profits, PartyGaming would be qualified for listing on the FSTE index. Not ones to be complacent about their success, the PartyGaming people plan to branch out into the Chinese market, a market already comprised of about 70,000 people who play at peak hours. Considering the fact that profits come from the small amount of money PartyGaming takes from the pot, the smartest thing it can do is to simply increase the size of the pot.

With this kind of success, one would think investors would be rushing to invest in PartyGaming. But in fact investors have some worries, the biggest one revolving around the question of legality. Lawmakers in the U.S. insist that the U.S. federal Wire Act of 1961 makes online gambling – and not only gambling via phone lines – illegal. Considering the fact that PartyGaming’s largest market is in the U.S., the worry for investors is that it might suddenly get closed down.

Investors also worry about online gambling sites being used by others for money laundering. Bhargava, however, feels quite confident in PartyGaming’s very thorough checking system, a system he feels borders on the superfluous given the fact that laundering money via internet gambling is so impractical. The fact that PartyGaming uses highly reputable international banking institutions should lay any additional concerns to rest, according to Bhargava, who acknowledges that the success of PartyGaming hinges very much on its image. In light of this, the company has made every effort to clear the name of one of PartyGaming’s co-founders and major shareholder, Ruth Parasol, who was at one time making her fortune via internet pornography. PartyGaming could not be more adamant about the fact that Parasol, who owns 20% of the online poker company, is no longer in any way connected with the pornography industry.

Its various concerns notwithstanding, PartyGaming couldn’t have a brighter future. Whether it’s listed on the FTSE or not, it seems clear that PartyGaming is only moving onward and upward.