PartyGaming has entered into a Non-Prosecution Agreement with the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
Under the terms of the Non-Prosecution Agreement, the USAO will not prosecute PartyGaming or any of its subsidiaries for providing internet gambling services to customers in the US prior to the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006.
As part of the agreement, the company has accepted a Statement of Facts regarding its business activities prior to the enactment of the UIGEA and has agreed to pay $105m, in semi-annual instalments over a period ending on September 30, 2012. Such payments will be made from the group’s existing financial resources.
“The agreement with the US authorities will be welcomed by the majority of those in the online industry as a break from the past with the opportunity now to move forward," said Warwick Bartlett, chief executive of Global Betting and Gaming Consultants.
“Some operators, however, will have misgivings. The admission of guilt is unlikely to rest easy with the 'Brit' companies who have traded from a country where gambling is entirely legal. As far as they are concerned, they have never done anything wrong.
“There is also a measure of hypocrisy at play - on the one hand the US has heaped a heavy fine on PartyGaming and yet sometime this year Congressman Frank will lay a Bill down that could lead to legalisation of online poker. So the sinners have been found guilty and redeemed, all in one year.
“The moot question is that after all of this will the UK-listed companies be granted US licences in the future? The US the land of the free? It is if you are American."
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