The parent company of one of the most popular poker sites on the Internet said yesterday it has agreed to pay the U.S. government $105 million to settle charges that it illegally offered gambling to players in the U.S. PartyGaming Plc said it would pay the money over three years as part of a “Non-Prosecution Agreement” it recently reached with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
The Justice position is considered controversial with gaming analysts and some members of Congress arguing it has steered U.S. players to unregulated offshore sites. “The U.S. government has now succeeded in driving out the reputable publicly-traded Internet gaming operators,” said Joseph M. Kelley, a professor of business law at the State College at Buffalo, who has also served as an expert witness for gaming and government interests. “It has not decreased online gambling, but has reduced the ability to monitor suspicious transactions.”
Excerpted from The Washington Post.