ONLINE GAMING COMPANY PARTYGAMING PAYS THE US GOVERNMENT $105 MILLION.

A payment of $105 million was recently been made by Gibraltar-based PartyGaming, one of the largest online gaming website in the world to the U.S government. PartyGaming is best known for its online poker room PartyPoker.com.

PartyGaming is the world’s leading listed online gaming company. Founded in 1997, the group offers a variety of games through an integrated Party-branded platform, and through a number of secondary brands. The group key gaming sites include PartyPoker.com, one of the world’s largest online poker rooms and PartyCasino.com, one of the world's leading online casinos. In addition, the Group offers online bingo through PartyBingo.com, online backgammon through PartyGammon.com, and sports betting through PartyBets.com and Gamebookers.com.

The payment has been labelled a “non-prosecution agreement” and is hoped to put an end to the government’s investigation of the popular gaming portal. This latest payment brings the government’s income from these types of settlements up to around the $750 million mark and points to the fact that they are far more concerned with gaining a piece of the action, in effect taxing online gambling companies in an unofficial way, rather than formally prosecuting anyone. It remains to be seen whether this may lead to eventual legalization and regulation of online gambling.