British online gambling firms unload U.S. operations for $1 LONDON (AP) - British-based online gaming companies began cashing in the chips of their U.S. operations Friday as President Bush signed a bill aimed at restricting Internet gambling in the United States. Sportingbet PLC and Leisure & Gaming PLC both sold their U.S. operations for a token $1 while World Gaming PLC directors resigned, leaving the company in the hands of administrators. Sportingbet offloaded $13.2 million of debt by selling its U.S. sports-betting, casino business and poker operations to Antigua-based Jazette Enterprises Ltd. The company said the sale saved it $14 million in costs it would have had to pay to close the operations. The businesses have a total 500 employees. Sportingbet said it will keep its European sports, casino and poker businesses, Australian sports business and the non-U.S. business of Paradise Poker. Congress caught the gaming market by surprise last month when it included a provision in a bill aimed at improving port security that would make it illegal for banks and credit card companies to settle payments to online gambling sites. Bush signed the measure into law Friday. The measure's supporters include the National Football League as well as conservative and antigambling groups. Some banking groups lobbied against it. Federal officials have made recent arrests involving offshore companies operating Internet gambling sites. The Internet gambling industry is headquartered almost entirely outside the United States, although many of its customers live in the U.S. Andrew McIver, Sportingbet's chief executive designate, said in a statement that the company was ``saddened to have to dispose of such a fantastic business as a result of political actions in the U.S. Congress.'' ``The sale however, prevents significant closure costs which would have been both expensive and time consuming. It also preserves the employment of ... colleagues who have worked so hard to build the U.S. operations into the highly profitable business it is today,'' McIver said. Sportingbet will retain the Internet addresses and intellectual property of wallstreet.com, aces.com and sportingbetUSA.com, but won't use them for any U.S. gaming purpose. Jazette has agreed not to take bets from non-U.S. residents for two years, and not to take bets from customers outside the Americas for three years. Leisure & Gaming sold all of the shares of its wholly owned subsidiaries -- VIP Management Services, Bon Bini Investments, EH Gaming Ventures, ECom ServCorp and Nine Holdings -- to Stockdale Investment, a newly incorporated company established by Alistair Assheton, former chief executive of the company. Like Sportingbet, Leisure & Gaming said that sale was the best course of action for shareholders, given the alternative of liquidating the businesses at a cost of around $6 million. The company said the sale would allow it to grow its British and European operations, free of any potential contravention of U.S. regulations. World Gaming instead appointed administrators to the business after the resignation of its directors. ``This decision (to call in administrators) follows discussions with all key parties and after receiving appropriate legal advice. These (U.S.) operations contributed the overwhelming majority of the company's revenues for the year to date 2006,'' World Gaming said. Sportingbet shares fell 13.4 percent to 56.25 pence ($1.04), Leisure & Gaming shares rose 3.1 percent to 8.25 pence (15.32 cents). World Gaming shares were suspended at 4 pence (7.4 cents). http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/15751819.htm
