"PartlyGaming Ponders Flotation of IPO"

PartlyGaming, is an Internet gambling site. It operates such sites as PartlyBingo, PartlyPoker, and Starbuck Casino. The company has filed to go public on the London Stock Exchange. This filing is most likely one of the London Stock Exchange’s largest public offerings in its’ recent history.

PartlyGaming is based in Gibraltar. The company intends to make its flotation by the end of June of this year. Predictions are that the flotation could place the worth of the company between eight to eleven billion dollars. A flotation of this size would make PartlyGaming one of the leading publicly traded concerns throughout the United Kingdom. This means that roughly 23% of the shares going up for sale will have belonged to PartyGaming shareholders.

PartlyGaming draws players from all parts of the world to its Internet gambling website. This includes residents of the United States where PartyPoker is immensely popular. The fact that the website is popular in the United States can be a problem. That’s because it is in absolute conflict with the U.S. Government’s policies on Internet gambling. That policy staunchly prohibits Internet gambling. Actually the U.S. prohibition on Internet gambling is being opposed both nationally and internationally. Recently, the small island nation of Antigua, where there are many online gaming businesses based, filed suit with the WTO against the U.S. for what it considers to be its unfair trade practices. Antigua has argued that the U.S. policy against online gambling is biased. This is because domestic gambling businesses in the U.S. are not outlawed. The U.S. countered that in order to uphold public order and public morale, it had the right to ban online gambling. When the World Trade Organization gave its initial ruling on this case and during its subsequent appeals, their decision left the standing of the U.S. position on Internet gambling ambiguous and permitted both countries to claim victory in the ruling. Although some concern may be raised about the fate of the Internet gambling industry, due to the ambiguity of the ruling, the majority would argue that there is too much demand for Internet gambling and too much drive behind the industry’s growth to stop its extraordinary expansion. Toronto-based lawyer and managing editor of Law of Dot Com, Javaz Heydry, believes that, sooner or later, the U.S. will have to begin regulating Internet gambling businesses clearly and allow them to function under strict rules and conditions, just as in the U.K., as an alternative to just outlawing the industry outright.

As for PartlyGaming, their financial data look very hopeful. For the year 2004, the company states that its revenues were $601 million. This is actually close to five times its 2003 revenues. Also, PartlyGaming posted a net income for 2004 of $350 million, four times that of its earlier levels. Finally, in just the first quarter of 2005, sales were $222 million, which is nearly double what they had been at that time a year earlier

And general, the fact is that things looks quite good for the Internet gambling industry. The gambling consultant company, Christians Capital Advisors, has estimated that in the next five years the online gaming market will at least double, growing from $11.9 billion for this year to $24 billion in 2010. This is not unlike the unbelievable growth experienced by traditional e-commerce in its initial days.