Times article seems to foreshadow worst case scenario

[theta]

London Times end of poker article (http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9070-2384407,00.html)

[OHFreak]

Nice... isn't Pacific part of 888?

[Sarge85]

Wow that sounds icky.

Sarge/images/graemlins/diamond.gif

[jrz1972]

Yeah according to this, 888 is cutting off the US. If other firms follow suit, this would in fact be the end of online poker for Americans and would be devastating for the industry as a whole.

[dibbs]

Yea that sounds [censored], eager to here how Mr. K, Nate, Berge etc interpret this.

[BluffVin]

[ QUOTE ]
PartyGaming, the world’s biggest internet gambling company, said last night that it was “still evaluating the situation”, although industry sources believe it will also announce a cessation of its services to American punters.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well that's new. And awful.

[llayner]

appartently, should have shorted party stock...

[jrz1972]

I wonder how much of this has to do with 888 and Party both being publicly-traded corporations, and I wonder if privately-owned firms like Stars will follow suit.

The US makes up about 2/3 of this market, and you'd think at least a few firms would be willing to risk the legal ramifactions of sticking around for that loot.

[Jeffage]

Looks extremely bad. I guess I will have to move to Atlantic City (sigh).

Jeff

[Losing all]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
PartyGaming, the world’s biggest internet gambling company, said last night that it was “still evaluating the situation”, although industry sources believe it will also announce a cessation of its services to American punters.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well that's new. And awful.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, tomorrow could be worse than Friday. Our waiting for things to shake out peroid could end up being very short. This sick feeling just wont go away.

[DuderinoAB]

Pacific cutting of US players would probably be the best thing to ever happen...that place is terrible. If others follow suit I'm going to hate life. I seem to remember some high ranking SportingBet official making a statement that the US was the only market he was interested in. Hopefully he stands behind that. This article certainly doesn't make me believe that will be the case though.

[chokero]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
PartyGaming, the world’s biggest internet gambling company, said last night that it was “still evaluating the situation”, although industry sources believe it will also announce a cessation of its services to American punters.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well that's new. And awful.

[/ QUOTE ]

indeed, worst news if true

[whangarei]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
PartyGaming, the world’s biggest internet gambling company, said last night that it was “still evaluating the situation”, although industry sources believe it will also announce a cessation of its services to American punters.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well that's new. And awful.

[/ QUOTE ]

[chicagoY]

thanks, just pulled the last of my funds out of party just in case.

[JPFisher55]

I'll believe this when I see it. This article is the only one that I have read that says the industry is going to voluntarily lose 2/3 of its business. This would make its share values essentially zero. I never believe the London Times.

[Nate tha\\\' Great]

I can't imagine what's going on in those boardrooms right now. That said, I would urge caution and am somewhat skeptical of the notion that PartyGaming will immeditely shutter its US business.

From an economic point of view, it makes sense for the sites to segregate themselves between operations that face the US and those that don't. The reason is that for every site that bans US play, those that keep it stand to gain a larger and larger share of the US player base.

To a lesser extent, it is probably also the case that there is a "first mover" advantage in becoming the first (or one of the first) sites to focus exclusively on Europe. This is where the growth is in the industry is anyway, and the cost of customer acqusition is probably lower there. However, the more marketing resources that are focused on Europe, the more saturated the European market becomes, and a Europe-only strategy becomes less attractive.

It is possible that the pressure of being a publicly traded company is so great on PartyGaming that they will decide that closing themselves to the US is the lesser of two evils. However, ultimately I think those executives will decide that their advantageous position in the market is too great a price to pay, at least until there is more clarity about how the regulations will be enforced.

I also believe there is almost no chance that privately-held sites like PokerStars close themselves to the US, until and unless the regulations are determined to have a lot of teeth.

[PrayingMantis]

[ QUOTE ]

I also believe there is almost no chance that privately-held sites like PokerStars close themselves to the US, until and unless the regulations are determined to have a lot of teeth.

[/ QUOTE ]

PS was about to become public, although I'm not sure what are their plans about this matter now.

[jrz1972]

[ QUOTE ]
It is possible that the pressure of being a publicly traded company is so great on PartyGaming that they will decide that closing themselves to the US is the lesser of two evils. However, ultimately I think those executives will decide that their advantageous position in the market is too great a price to pay, at least until there is more clarity about how the regulations will be enforced.

I also believe there is almost no chance that privately-held sites like PokerStars close themselves to the US, until and unless the regulations are determined to have a lot of teeth.

[/ QUOTE ]

FWIW, this is my take too. I would not be surprised if all publicly traded sites pulled out of the US (that would include Paradise, obviously, though they seem more resistant than the others), leaving the market to Stars essentially.

[Jeffage]

What about WSEX? I am really weighing getting all my money offline right now.

Jeff

[Nate tha\\\' Great]

[ QUOTE ]
FWIW, this is my take too. I would not be surprised if all publicly traded sites pulled out of the US (that would include Paradise, obviously, though they seem more resistant than the others), leaving the market to Stars essentially.

[/ QUOTE ]

Plus UB, FullTilt, Absolute, Prima, and about a dozen smaller rooms.

[jrz1972]

WPEX isn't going to have enough players to survive. There's no reason to pull your funds out because they're not going to run off with your money, but little rooms like that aren't going to be around in a few months.

[PokerBob]

[ QUOTE ]
Pacific cutting of US players would probably be the best thing to ever happen...that place is terrible.

[/ QUOTE ]

um, the games there are amazing.

[JuntMonkey]

Enough with being worried about pulling your funds out. If 888 announces they are closed to U.S. players tomorrow, it doesn't mean they are also going to confiscate your entire bankroll.

Nate is awesome.

[Parlay Slow]

Taking PartyGaming private (if that is indeed the reasoning) seems like a more reasonable solution than shutting down 75% of your revenue stream overnight

A liquid private investment group could come in and buy out the shares for 1-2 billion $US and run the company however they want

[Berge20]

Wow

If this is true and other sites continue to follow suit, we are seeing the protective nature of corporations to certain legal concerns.

A lot of times these companies take the safe road and totally ensure that they cannot be held liable at all. The same could occur from banks and other insitutions covered part or in full by the law.

Moderately shocked since we havent even seen the regulations yet, but f'n a....

[Kneel B4 Zod]

[ QUOTE ]
To a lesser extent, it is probably also the case that there is a "first mover" advantage in becoming the first (or one of the first) sites to focus exclusively on Europe. This is where the growth is in the industry is anyway, and the cost of customer acqusition is probably lower there. However, the more marketing resources that are focused on Europe, the more saturated the European market becomes, and a Europe-only strategy becomes less attractive.

[/ QUOTE ]

a number of companies (Party included) were already focused on Europe