Cryptologic Shares Rise
due to Online Gambling Optimism
 February
4 - The online gambling business is a fickle one as some
countries choose to ban the popular Internet activity while
others opt to legalise and regulate it. As a result, the share
prices of many of the world's leading listed
online gambling operations
are prone to go up and down like a yo yo.
One such operation is the highly successful Dublin-based online
gambling software developer,
Cryptologic Ltd,
which is listed on the
London Stock Exchange
(LSE), and whose executives - as well as its shareholders - were
obviously thrilled this week to see the operation's share price
rise as opposed to fall.
And the reason, it seems, for the share price hike is the news
that
Barney Frank,
the Chairman of the US House Financial Committee in Washington
D.C. and avid supporter of legalizing online gambling in the
United States (where it is currently banned), will soon
reintroduce an online gambling regulation bill.
Given America's newly installed administration, gaming pundits
are predicting that Frank - who has spent the last few years
trying to get US Congress to reverse the
draconian anti-online gambling legislation
it passed in October 2006 - now has a greater chance than ever
before of getting the bill passed.
This means opening the way forward to the
legalisation of online gambling
in the United States which - being the world's largest online
gambling market - will allow online casinos, online poker rooms,
online betting sites, payment gateways and software developers
like Cryptologic to re-enter the U.S. one day.
Up until October 2006, the online gambling industry was booming
thanks for the most part to the
millions of American online gamblers
and the billions of dollars they were spending on the industry.
However, the passing of the UIGEA ended all that, forcing
companies to focus their efforts outside of the United States.
From then until now it has been a rough journey for most, as
almost overnight their largest market was deemed off-limits,
forcing them to seek other online
gambling markets around the world,
including the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia and even South Africa
to a smaller degree.
So the news that Frank may one day soon help Americans once
again exercise their right and freedom to gamble online, ensured
that investors in
Cryptologic stock
earned over 30 percent
via end of the day trading yesterday in London.
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