Afternoon:
14°c
PartyGaming casinos repair soccer damage
09.07.09
The end of the football season is bad news for gambling firms — punters switch off while Frank Lampard and co are on holiday.
But online betting house PartyGaming reckons it is compensating for the loss of sport betting revenue by luring folk on to its casino site.
Sales have “remained robust...despite the impact of seasonality”, the company said in a trading update today.
PartyGaming saw three-quarters of its business wiped out in 2007 when the US government suddenly tightened anti-gambling laws. It has since recovered by expanding in Europe, and has just opened an Italian poker network which it expects to be “profitable and exciting”.
The company also hopes to cash in on the closure of bingo halls as fans migrate to the internet.
The shares, which floated at 116p in June 2005, today added 91⁄2p to 247p. The company will unveil half-year profit figures on 28 August.
PartyGaming agreed to pay $105 million (£65 million) to the US authorities to settle allegations that it illegally provided internet gambling to Americans.
Reader views (1)
Yep, this government carries on relaxing the gambling laws turning us all into a nation of gambling addicts. Im sick of all the adverts, betting shops with their FOBT,Casino TV channels. All these things are as fixed as anything and the governemnt know it. Why have they allowed it to happen here?, not tax revenue surely....Evil Mr Brown!!!
- Ex Gambling Addict, London
