PartyGaming leading online casino charge

Online casino company PartyGaming has gone from strength to strength this week following its IPO. Coming towards the end of the first full week of trading, shares have risen from the launch price of 149p to 152p, giving the company a market cap of more than £6bn.

The phenomenal and seemingly unstoppable rise of online casinos, spearheaded by PartyGaming, has even caused some to predict a knock-on effect which will hit offline casinos hard.

But a senior exec within the world's largest casino business is not losing any sleep over the rise of the online casinos.

Tim Stanley, senior VP and CIO at Harrah's, told silicon.com he firmly believes online casinos are complementary to, rather than in conflict with, his business.

Stanley believes the majority of those playing online would still gladly trade their PCs for a seat at a real Vegas poker table, and many will be playing online until their next visit to Sin City.

Such a complementary relationship is certainly aided by the fact PartyGaming boasts more customers from the US than any other country. As such, a burgeoning interest in casino games can only be good news for offline casinos, Stanley believes.

The profusion of US players is all the more surprising considering the fact that it is still illegal for US citizens to gamble online - and illegal for casinos to take bets from US punters, a fact PartyGaming noted in its prospectus.

"In many countries, including the United States, the group's activities are considered to be illegal by the relevant authorities."

However, the company believes the law is poorly enforced and gladly exploits that situation. "PartyGaming and its directors rely on the apparent unwillingness or inability of regulators generally to bring actions against businesses with no physical presence in the country concerned," the prospectus adds.

To avoid such a conflict PartyGaming, though set up by a California lawyer, bases its operations in Gibraltar.