$1 Billion Bill for Popular Online Bingo Site

by Hollie Sanders

It has been reported in the US press, the New York Post to be exact, that the popular online bingo site, Party Gaming is going to have to foot a huge $1 Billion to avoid being prosecuted by the US Government for pre Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act activities in the United States.  I don’t know about you but to me this seems almost incomprehensible, I actually can’t get my mind around this staggering amount of money.

I, like most other people can understand that you are liable to pay fines for online bingo that have been rung up during the time period that a law has been enacted, but why for heavens sake before the law was even put into force, how can they even think that retrospective action is legal. This smacks too much like blatant daylight robbery to me. Move over the Sheriff of Nottingham, the Bush government is leading the way.

It is true that when Party Gaming took the company into the UK market, the founders Ruth Parisol and Russ de Leon made a cool $7 billion when the company went public. They may well be prepared to part with $1 billion just to prevent a shareholder revolt. But it appears almost as though the US Government knows this and is actually prepared to go to the extent of what I believe to be extortion methods, in order to squeeze money out of them or threaten to prosecute.

This kind of unilateral “translation” of the law in retrospect by one of the world biggest superpowers really leaves me with serious doubts about their ability to act fairly and I believe that the US needs a democratic Government; the Republican dispensation is beginning to appear to be completely despotic.