Sportingbet Boss Has Positive Views On Poker
Published: Friday, March 18, 2005 Online-Casinos.com
SPORTINGBET BOSS HAS POSITIVE VIEWS ON POKER
We're going to be a consolidator
- not one of the consolidated....
The CEO of Sportingbet which now
owns Paradise Poker, one of the largest online poker companies was in Bismarck,
North Dakota last week to give evidence to the Senate Judiciary Committee on legalised
poker. He was interviewed by Marketwatch and had positive things to say about
the benefits of US legalisation.
In very summarised form, these are the
high points of his interview:
The US market commands some two thirds of
the booming international online poker market, with Europe catching up fast. Legalisation
will bring weed out less successful outfits, and Sportingbet intends to be a consolidator
rather than one of the consolidated.
Since Sportingbet purchased Paradise
Poker, shares of Sportingbet have rocketed 200 percent.
Payne made a
strong call for US regulation, saying it was what the industry craved. He revealed
that there are some 2 million poker players globally and that this number was
conservatively expected to soar by 400 percent over the next three years. Paradise
poker alone plays a million games a day, or 10 games a second.
Asked about
the downside of online poker, Payne listed the topics used by detractors to oppose
legalisation, among them underage and addictive gambling. He pointed out that
technology to safeguard against underage gambling was now a reality, and that
anti-collusion measures had improved significantly. He described allegations of
money laundering as "theoretical"..
Taxation under legalisation,
and how this would affect his company was covered in the interview, and Payne
said that if Paradise was to relocate to North Dakota, the company would contribute
something like $8 to $10 million in taxes thrpough a user fee of $10 a head which
the operators would pay. He went on to reveal that Paradise Poker is expected
to generate $100 million in gross sales this year, with a bottom-line profit of
$60 million. Of that $60 million, two-thirds comes from the U.S., but a third
from rest of the world.
If the entire online gambling business was regulated
in the U.S. the country would receive $2 billion in taxes per year, Payne opined.
That money exists already. It's a redistribution of income that other people -
offshore banks, credit card companies -- are keeping that the U.S. could keep
for itself.
Payne strongly argued against the proposition that online
poker was illegal in the US, saying that the only piece of legislation is the
Wire Act. "Poker does not fall under the wire act, I'm not aware of legislation
that determines poker to be illegal. If people are playing online poker with my
business, those transactions are being managed and handled in countries that allow
it. To make it illegal, you have to be violating some law. The courts have held
that it's not illegal under the Wire Act."
In answer to a question
on how many companies could go public in the near future, Payne said he thought
the number is now up to 15, with PartyGaming rumoured to be about to list around
May/June. "Quite a few will follow in the U.K.," he said. One of the
most important reasons for that is that the U.K. regulates the industry.
The
Senate has still to approve the North Dakota Bill introduced by Rep. Kasper and
intended to legaise online poker in the state. If that happens, the Bill will
then go before a vote of the people, probably some time in November 2005 or June
2006.
