Party Poker U.S. shutdown an ominous sign

[griswold]

Party Poker's decision to stop doing business with U.S. customers is a really bad sign for the survival of offshore sports books. If Party Poker, the largest online poker site and the biggest gambling site catering to U.S. customers, is shutting down, how many others are likely to do the same?

The big poker sites are all much larger than the sportsbooks. If the poker sites are throwing in the towel and giving up the millions they handle, how long before the sportsbooks also shutdown?

I think all of the publicly traded companies will stop doing U.S. business. The stock price of both Party Gaming (Party Poker's parent) and Sportingbet both crashed in the last 48 hours. 888 Holdings, which operates several poer and sports sites, also said it will immediately close all American accounts. I doubt that the shareholders of any of the publicly traded companies will stand for doing business in the U.S. given the government's statement that online gambling here is illegal.

The big fear I have is that as these firms' stock prices collapse and some face bankruptcy, that they will not refund American bettors' money. This is what has happened with BoS/Millenium.

I certainly wouldn't leave much unneeded money in any accounts right now.

[thaikarate1]

Bush need to sign the bill right?

Has he sign it yet?

[griswold]

The gambling ban is part of the port security bill. There is absolutely no way Bush will veto it.

[MRhotPICKS]

Not to sound insensitive to what is happening, but would it would not be the worst idea to wait a few weeks, and then invest in these companies...

Their stocks will be dirt cheap and people will be looking to sell,sell, sell... Given some time, they will find loopholes around the law as they always do... Western Union is already a viable option... You can honestly own a pretty decent size of one of these companies when they are at their lowest, and watch them rebuild... they did it once, and trust me they WILL do it again

[griswold]

I strongly disagree. These companies are out of the U.S. market permanently. No publicly traded company on a major exchange (most of these are on London) is going to do business the U.S. government says is illegall.

The only sites I believe will continue to operate here are the ones that are privately owned.

Yes, I do believe there will be ways to get around the law. But no publicly traded company will ever do that. The US and British governments have very close relationships and the London Exchange is the second most prestigious in the world (right behind NYSE).