Party Poker eyes return to U.S. market

March 13, 10:54 AMOnline Poker ExaminerSteven Ruddock

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It appears that gaming giant Party Poker, may be embarking on its U.S. comeback tour soon.

In a statement included in their annual earnings report, Party Poker's finance director, Martin Weigold, said he felt 'optimistic about a return to the U.S. market in the near future.'

Weigold cited legislation by Barney Frank as a crucial stepping stone to reopening the U.S. market to sites such as Party Poker.

CEO Jim Ryan, had this to say about a possible return the U.S. market:

"We would not re-enter in that market in anything other than a legal and regulated way. But what we are interested in doing, before we do see the advent of regulation, is propagating the brand, keeping it alive. So we are looking at ways and means to, in fact, reinforce the brand through our play for fun site, reinforce the brand perhaps through a subscription-based model. These are all opportunities as well as a few others that I would rather not go into that we're exploring today."

Ryan's concern stems from ongoing litigation from the Justice Department ; The DoJ claims Party Poker violated the federal wire act prior to the passage of the UIGEA bill.

Party Poker's founders have supposedly reached a settlement with the DoJ. The founders of PartyGaming, Ruth Parasol and Russ DeLeon, would reportedly both be contributing to the settlement. Don't feel too bad for them, they made billions when PartyGaming went public.

Earlier reports had the US DoJ demanding that the husband-and-wife founders of PartyGaming serve at least some jail time. People close to the couple said that they would never agree to this, so it is assumed that any settlement would involve no jail-time for any of the company's founders. It is also assumed that people involved with PartyGaming would be allowed to freely travel throughout the United States without fear of being arrested.

This settlement would mean that the DoJ would forgive PartyGaming for facilitating "illegal betting" before they pulled out of the US market in 2006.

With the reintroduction of publicly traded sites (like Party Poker) into the U.S. market, we could be looking at another boom for online players in the not so distant future.

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