Online Casino & Online Casino News contact on 16 Mar 2007 07:45 am
Online gambling may get reprieve (Bloomberg News | 15 March 2007)
U.S. Representative Barney Frank may introduce legislation that would repeal a ban on Internet gambling, sending shares of online-gambling stocks higher.
 Heather Wong, a spokeswoman for Mr. Frank, said the legislator is in the “thinking stage” of drafting a bill to reverse Congress’s decision last year to prohibit the collection of credit card payments from gambling websites.
 Shares of Gibraltar-based PartyGaming PLC, the world’s biggest Internet poker operator, rose the most since 2005. SportingBet PLC and 888 Holdings PLC and also advanced in London. The Financial Times reported Mr. Frank’s decision earlier today.
 “The slightest indicator that operators may get business back in the U.S. is going to get speculators coming in,” said Andrew French, a sales trader at E*Trade Securities in London.
 Online gambling stocks plummeted across Europe in October after Congress unexpectedly passed the ban. PartyGaming lost about three-quarters of its revenue as a result of ending U.S. operations, while 888 lost about half its revenue.
 PartyGaming rose 4.75 pence (11 cents) or 13 per cent to 42.75 pence, the most since Dec. 8, 2005. Sportingbet, the owner of Paradise Poker, gained 5.4 per cent, and 888 climbed 3.9 per cent.
 To crimp the flow of funds to betting sites, Congress passed the bill Sept. 30, barring credit card companies from processing payments for the industry. President George W. Bush signed the measure into law on Oct. 13.
 The legislation sought to close the business to people in the U.S., representing half of the world’s Internet gambling market. Its backers argued that a past ban in the U.S. only succeeded in pushing the business offshore.
 Since becoming chairman of the House Financial Services Committee in January, 2006, Mr. Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts, has introduced a bill that would ban new commercially owned banks. That would prevent firms such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Home Depot Inc. from operating banks.
 He also proposed laws requiring companies to let shareholders vote on executives’ pay.