Dikshit Sells
Stake in PartyGaming for £188 million
 October
21 - After 36-year-old
Anurag Dikshit
(luckily pronounced Dix-it), the co-founder of leading online
gambling operation,
PartyGaming Plc,
announced that he was
selling off two-thirds of his stake
in the billion pound firm this week,
its share price dropped by 16 percent on the London Stock
Exchange (LSE).
PartyGaming shares fell by 44.4p to 2401.1p
- the largest downward spiral since the United States Congress
passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in
October 2006 which effectively banned online gambling in the
States - giving
the gaming firm a market value of 978.5 million pounds.
According to news reports,
the Indian-born online gambling entrepreneur sold 75 million
shares at 250p each,
the entire proceeds of which he intends to donate to a charity
he founded. He has indicated that
in the coming months
he will likely sell off his remaining shares in PartyGaming.
Said a Dikshit spokesperson, Shimon Cohen, 'Anurag
wants to move on with his life,
sell his shares, endow them in his charitable foundation,
and move away from the whole issue and industry of PartyGaming.'
Dikshit is based in the online gambling-friendly jurisdiction of
Gibraltar, as
is PartyGaming.
Although
news of Dikshit's stock sale caused PartyGaming's share price to
slump, his
gradual exit from PartyGaming could ultimately bode well for the
company if it ever moves into the
American online gambling market.
That is assuming the American government ever wakes up and
legalizes the popular internet activity.
If that were to happen,
the fact that Dikshit has a criminal record
- as a result of a case the U.S. Justice Department brought
against him in which he pleaded guilty to illegal online
gambling in the United States and paid a $300 million fine -
would likely prevent PartyGaming from being granted a U.S.
gambling license.
PartyGaming was founded in 1997,
and Dikshit's role in the company was to develop its
state-of-the-art
online poker software platform. After PartyGaming - which
operates top online poker room
PartyPoker - listed in
2005, he became the
207th wealthiest person in the world. He
originally owned 27.9 percent of PartyGaming shares.
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