Ahead of Legalized Online Poker, Casino and Social Networking Giants Are Cozying up to Offshore Firms with a Past Wild Cards by Joseph Menn
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ONLINE GAMBLING Ahead of legalized online poker, casino and social networking giants are cozying up to offshore firms with a past Wild cards BY JOSEPH MENN SPECIAL REPORT 1 ONLINE GAMBLING WILD CARDS SaN FraNCISCO, MAY 14, 2012 chusetts, Delaware and other states debate similar moves. o prime itself for the U.S. debut Many of the cash-starved states, encour- of legal online poker, MGM Re- aged by intensive industry lobbying, have felt Tsorts International, owner of such freer to act since December, when the Justice Las Vegas Strip monuments as the MGM Department declared that one federal anti Grand, the Bellagio and the Mirage, want- gambling law, the Wire Act, would no lon- ed a partner that knew the ropes. ger be enforced beyond sports betting. So last October it hooked up with Bwin. But casino operators, Indian tribes and Party Digital Entertainment Plc, a Lon- Internet powers bent on offering online don-listed, Gibraltar-based specialist that poker lack experience delivering it. Online rakes in more from Web betting than any poker is a business that involves processing other publicly traded company. MGM Re- billions of dollars worth of bets and battling sorts took 25 percent of a new venture 65 the fraudsters, cheats and robot-player soft- percent owned by Bwin.Party, with smaller ware that can ruin the games. Hence the Las Vegas casino operator Boyd Gaming casinos are cozying up to some tech-savvy getting the remaining 10 percent. offshore partners whose pedigrees might “We’ll be out of the gate as soon as SAFE BET? MGM Resorts CEO Jim Murren says give regulators pause. anybody,” MGM Resorts Chief Execu- his company’s online poker tie-up with Bwin. Most states have “suitability” rules de- tive Officer Jim Murren boasted to inves- Party, backed by onetime phone-sex and porn signed to keep crooks out of the gambling tors in February. entrepreneur Ruth Parasol, gives it a competitive industry. Nevada requires that successful Online-gambling expertise isn’t the only edge. REUTERS/ BOBBY YIP license applicants and their large share- thing that distinguishes Bwin.Party. In 2009, holders possess “good character, honesty an earlier incarnation of the company paid and integrity.” Nevertheless, the big casino $105 million while admitting to U.S. pros- A group of Native American tribes in operators and their offshore partners are ecutors it had run an illegal gambling opera- California has signed up to use software betting that regulators will look favorably tion and engaged in bank and wire fraud. from another Israeli company, run by a man on their license applications for two good Among its principal backers: a Califor- who served prison time for stock manipu- reasons: tax money and high-tech jobs. nia-born woman who made a fortune in lation and bribery. Another tribe last week Early indications are that they are right. phone sex and Web pornography business- announced a deal with Bwin.Party. At a hearing on a Caesars deal with the es that, like the pioneering online-gam- Zynga, eager to convert some of its tens Israeli company last year, Mark Lipparelli, bling company that became Bwin.Party, of millions of virtual poker enthusiasts chairman of Nevada’s Gaming Control faced multiple allegations of wrongdoing. into cash gamblers, also has been in talks Board, said: “I don’t think as we look at MGM Resorts’ choice of Bwin.Party as with Bwin.Party and others that have had companies that we can have perfection as a partner while applying for online poker brushes with the law, according to people the standard, because I think that would be licenses in Nevada might seem unusual. familiar with the matter. a disservice to the state in attracting busi- It isn’t. The alliance reflects the calculated Meanwhile, offshore gambling outfit ness here.” The board unanimously recom- risks that major casino operators, Native PokerStars is considering buying its chief mended approval of the venture. American tribes and social-gaming giants offshore rival, Full Tilt, and making a run Gambling foes warn that states are put- Zynga and Facebook are weighing as they at the U.S. market even though founders of ting fiscal worries ahead of public safety, angle for a slice of a market valued at bil- both were indicted by the Justice Depart- exposing a huge and vulnerable population lions of dollars a year. ment last year on charges of illegal gambling, to the potential for compulsive betting. “The Caesars Entertainment Corp is prep- bank fraud and money laundering, accord- governments are so desperate for revenues ping for online poker by tying up with an ing to people familiar with the situation. that they will partner with these lawbreaking Israeli company that in 2007 acknowledged All this comes as Nevada prepares to li- outfits,” said Les Bernal, executive director settlement talks with the U.S. Justice De- cense the first online poker operators and of the nonprofit Stop Predatory Gambling partment over alleged breaches of anti- software suppliers late next month – and Foundation in Washington, D.C. “They will gambling laws. as California, New Jersey, Iowa, Massa- create addiction in order to feed off of it.” SPECIAL REPORT 2 ONLINE GAMBLING WILD CARDS PORN AND CARDS Jim Ryan, co-chief executive officer of Bwin.Party, acknowledged in an interview that when the company was looking for U.S. partners, his company’s history was a chief concern of MGM Resorts and other U.S. companies. “Suitability is the very first question on all of their minds,” he told Reuters during a recent business trip to San Francisco. It’s easy to see why. Bwin.Party grew out of PartyGaming, a brainchild of San Francisco-area native Ruth Parasol, who has a history as color- ful as Las Vegas. After earning a law de- gree, Parasol first prospered in the 1990s through 1-900 phone-sex and other ser- vices that were sued by multiple states for aggressive billing and collection practices. MATCHMAKING: Bwin.Party co-CEO Jim Ryan says “suitability” is a chief concern among potential In North Carolina’s suit, the judge ordered partners of the London-listed online-gambling company. REUTERS/ BECK DIEFENBACH a company she co-founded to pay $270,000 in damages. Then Parasol put her money behind In- for most of the past decade, declined re- for about $400 million of global annual on- ternet Entertainment Group, which gained quests for an interview. line poker revenue of nearly $5 billion, or notoriety for releasing an early Pamela An- In 2005, PartyGaming’s IPO became 8 percent. Depending on how many states derson sex video and promising an initial the largest London had seen in four years, ultimately legalize online cards, that share public offering that never happened. Em- valuing the company at more than $8 bil- could rise to as high as 28 percent in five ployees accused the company of routinely lion. Just then, debate over the U.S. legal years, the company says. overbilling customers, and Chief Executive status of online gambling flared. PartyGaming’s problems didn’t end Seth Warshavsky fled to Thailand as au- The Justice Department had long argued when it left the United States. In 2008, co- thorities investigated. Warshavsky didn’t that Internet poker violated the Wire Act founder Anurag Dikshit pleaded guilty to respond to an interview request. and other federal and state laws. Despite gambling via the wires in federal district Parasol managed to emerge unscathed, the success of PartyGaming and other off- court in New York. He forfeited $300 mil- and in 1997 founded Starluck Casino in the shore companies, no U.S.-based companies lion and agreed to cooperate with prosecu- Caribbean, providing online gambling to cus- offered alternatives for fear of prosecution. tors, leading PartyGaming itself to settle tomers in the U.S. and elsewhere. Renamed In 2006, Congress clarified the matter in 2009. The company paid $105 million PartyGaming, the company had a big hit by passing the Unlawful Internet Gambling to avoid prosecution for pre-UIGEA vio- with its PartyPoker website, which became Enforcement Act, or UIGEA, explicitly lations. Dikshit couldn’t be reached. His the dominant force in U.S. online cards. barring processing interstate or international lawyer didn’t return calls seeking comment. Parasol, who has been living in Gibraltar poker transactions where state laws forbade In 2010, prosecutor Arlo Devlin-Brown such gambling. PartyGaming responded by told the court that the probe was continu- In the 1990s, Parasol put her money pulling out of the U.S., leaving two-thirds of ing and referred to documents under seal. behind Internet Entertainment its players behind to be claimed by privately He recently told Reuters he could not com- Group, which gained notoriety held offshore companies. ment further, leaving open the possibility for releasing an early Pamela The law didn’t snuff out online poker in that Parasol could be charged if she returns Anderson sex video and promising the U.S. as players migrated to other off- home to the United States. shore providers. Research firm H2 Gam- PartyGaming’s fortunes recovered as an IPO that never came. bling Capital estimates the U.S. accounts it began to focus on non-U.S. customers. SPECIAL REPORT 3 ONLINE GAMBLING WILD CARDS Last year it bought rival Bwin Interactive to offer Internet poker software and services. gambling website was among the top 10 of Austria and changed the merged compa- Co-CEO Ryan said the joint venture will buyers of banner ads aimed at U.S. home ny’s name to Bwin.Party, with annual rev- handle all U.S.