PartyGaming, the parent company of PartyPoker and one of the first online gambling companies to go public with its stock, tied an all-time low today.
PartyGaming Shares, which are traded on the London Stock Exchange, closed at 27 pence. This is tied with the stock's lowest price since it went into a freefall after the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was sent to the President of the United States by Congress in late September of 2006.
This forced PartyGaming to abandon the largest online market in the world, which stripped tens of millions of dollars off the company's value, caused hundreds of people to be laid off, and allowed two of PartyGaming's toughest competitors, PokerStars and Full Tilt, to scoop up the American customers who were left behind because of the departure.
Because PartyGaming is publicly traded, it is forced to abide by the laws of the countries it does business in, no matter how vague they are. So, on Oct. 2, 2006, about two weeks before President George Bush was scheduled to sign the Safe Port Act into law (which included the UIGEA), PartyGaming told its investors that it would not do business with the U.S. anymore.
That day, PartyGaming's stock tumbled from 107 pence to 45. After peaking at 57.75 in April, 2007 (post UIGEA), it gradually fell to its lowest point in the history of the company at the close of today.
The stock floated at 122.75 pence on June 27, 2005, and peaked at 173.50 pence in August of that year. Ten days after Bush signed the UIGEA into law, PartyGaming's stock fell to 27 pence, which equals approximately 54¢ US today.
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