Gambling911.com Remains Open for US Business

FLORIDA –- (PRESS RELEASE) -- PartyPoker.com announced Monday it will be leaving the US market following the passing of a bill in Congress late last Friday that would seek to restrict some forms of internet gambling including online poker. The bill does not make it illegal for gamblers but instead will try to make using a credit card at online poker rooms more difficult. While gamblers will find other methods of depositing money into online poker rooms, a number of publicly traded poker rooms, including PartyPoker, caved in to shareholders fears and decided to pull out of the US market.

In a statement issued by PartyGaming CEO Mitch Garber, the company said it would be looking East for new customer acquisitions.

"If the President signs the (internet gambling) act into law, the company (PRTY.L: Quote, Profile, Research) will suspend all real money gaming business with U.S. residents, and such suspension will continue indefinitely," PartyPoker said in a statement issued Monday (see Reuters: Online gaming in crisis after U.S. ban is passed, October 2, 2006).

The banking industry has already indicted it is not capable of enforcing restrictions on internet gambling transactions. This type of monitoring system would cost billions of dollars to implement. As such, for many online poker sites it is business as usual until further notice.

"The passing of this bill through Congress during the wee hours of the morning Saturday has left the online gambling industry in a state of shock," commented Christopher Costigan, Founder of Gambling911.com. "Most of us feel as if we are in the middle of a war. Some have fared well. For those companies trading on the London Stock Exchange it was as if the bomb had been dropped right on them. The publicly traded online gambling sector lost millions of dollars in a matter of days.

"Over the last few days we have seen some internet gambling companies retreating (i.e. PartyPoker.com) while the vast majority continue to lay low in hopes that this will all go away. As expected though, a handful of establishments have decided they will fight for the industry."

Few experts are in disagreement that there will always be places online in which US based customers can play real money poker. Furthermore, the powerful nearly 100,000 member strong Poker Players Alliance is still hopeful that an exception to the bill will be carved out for online poker.

"In the end, poker players are least affected by these developments other than perhaps having to find a new online poker room to join," said Costigan.

Gambling911.com would like to applaud those internet poker rooms that have thus far decided to remain open. Each of Gambling911.com's poker room sponsors remain up and running with no intentions of turning away US customers.