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The world of internet gambling is relatively small in reality. There is only a handful of well known reputable internet gambling software manufacturers, a few dozen well know online casino groups, and a smattering of trustworthy internet casino portals which advertise the sites and work on advocacy. The biggies in this industry make mega-bucks and have a lot of power. Even still, it's a relatively young industry, with the first internet casino going online in 1996. Like the operating system race for power there is one company which wasn't first with the idea, yet is turning into the 800 lb. gorilla. PartyGaming is bound and determined to become the leader in every branch of internet gambling. PartyGaming started with Poker then they branched to casino games. A while after that they added backgammon and now they are doing a sports book. I found the information about the sports book through the news on this site and decided I wanted to know more. I went to PartyGaming.com to have a look and so far I have found nothing. I have, however, learned that there is also a PartyBingo which is one of the top five online Bingo sites. Online Bingo. I'm sorry but bingo is not bingo to me unless it is played in the recreation hall of a church or synagogue. The place has to be filled with old people and the women must have an odd shade of blue-ish white hair. Bingo isn't Bingo unless the winner gets all excited, stands and screams when they have Bingo, and holds up their card while jumping. I know I state my case daily about how much better internet gambling is to the land-based casino, but land-based bingo is such an icon of Americana culture. It saddens me to see it online, at least until they add the video cam format so I can see my excited screaming winners again. But that isn't the point of this article. PartyGaming was founded in 1997 and has grown to four (soon to be five) brands. They are perhaps the largest online gambling company in the world. They have stomped on the toes of 888.com, which was the first internet casino. They are a monolith. It also seems that their management is selling their shares faster than a speeding bullet. While searching their site for any mention of the upcoming Party Sports I checked out their latest press releases. On June 8th, June 30th, and July 5th PartyGaming has posted PDMR announcements. PDMR, sounds like some sort of boring corporate speak until you open up the file to find it stands for "Persons Discharging Managerial Responsibility". PDMR means that someone is selling their shares. There have been five PDMR announcements since January on PartyGaming, two on March 31st and the last three in the past month. What is going on at PartyGaming? I opened up the files to see who has been selling for the last three PDMR's. On June 8th the Chief Executive Officer of PartyGaming, Mitch Garber, exercised 583,333 shares of PartyGaming. The language of the PDMI is strictly lawyer-speak, "Name of person discharging managerial responsibilities/director" which translates to, Names of people selling the stock. An even better one is, "Indicate whether the notification is in respect of a holding of the person referred to in 3 or 4 above or in respect of a non-beneficial interest" the answer within the June 30th PDMI was "As per 3." The three referred to here being Chief Executive Officer of PartyGaming, Mitch Garber (again), Martin Weigol the Group Finance Director, and David Abdoo the General Counsel and Company Secretary. This means the one who runs the company is selling, the one who knows all about the money is selling, and the one who handles everything legal is selling. Why does this make me nervous? Garber isn't selling again, he's simply mentioned on the following PDMI. I don't know the reason behind this, but I'll explain why I think this in a moment. Here's something else I don't get. These are ordinary shares being sold. On the June 30th PDMI they list the "Total holding following notification and total percentage holding following notification (any treasury shares should not be taken into account when calculating percentage)" and list the shares following notification as follows: "Mitch Garber – 1,166,666 (0.029%), Martin Weigold – 2,737,776 shares (0.068%), David Abdoo – 1,711,110 (0.043%)." However, on the June 8th PDMI Garber's shares following notification were "583,333 shares (0.015%)." I tried the July 6th PDMI in an attempt to clear up my confusion. It didn't help. The men exercising their options this time were "Michael Jackson – 262,069 shares, Martin Weigold – 2,737,776 shares, and David Abdoo – 1,711,110 shares." Here it is. Garber only sold once. Abdoo and Weigold have also only sold once. The following PDMI has the follow up information from the initial PDMI announcing the sale. This doesn't take away the fact that the Chairman (Jackson) in addition to the Chief Executive Officer, the Group Finance Director, and the General Counsel and Company Secretary has sold shares in the last month. These are not people who need to sell shares in order to get the money to finish something off in their home. The only reason they would exercise shares is because they feel they could earn more money from the sell of their shares elsewhere. It also means they don't have as much confidence in their company. Soon PartyGaming will be five mega brands. Five brands which rely on the United States to keep internet gambling in its quasi-legal status. If the United States passes HR 4777 PartyGaming simply will not get the same revenue, as eighty percent of their money comes from players in the United States. This would take PartyGaming from an 800 lb. gorilla to the size of a skinny monkey. Perhaps Garber, Weigold, Addoo, and Jackson are skeptical of PartyGaming's future. The stock market has been going nuts lately, so perhaps they are simply expecting a crash across the board. Whatever it is, I would think twice before putting my money on PartyGaming. Posted on: July 6, 2006
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