Happy Blue Monday Everyone!!!
Psychologists call today, January 22, "Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year, because the weather generally blows, the days are still short, you realize you spent too much money over the holidays and you already gave into your New Year's resolution to stop looking at Internet porn so much, or whatever it is you were resolved to do.
And for online gaming sites and for many who played a role in their rise from the backrooms of the Web to the top of the London stock exchange, you can add to the "things that make you depressed" list the recent Neteller shakedown and news yesterday that the US Dept. of Justice has ordered some of the world's biggest banks to hand over all e-mails and documents connected with gaming sites.
As a result, shares in European online gaming companies fell as much as 14 percent today on London's Alternative Investment Market while British politicans have be thrown in a tizzy, or whatever it is Brits do when they're chapped, over the long arm of the U.S. law crossing the Atlantic.
"They are going after parties removed several steps from the business of gambling. To pursue say, an adviser on a float is frankly ridiculous," said a senior banking source to the London Times.
Alan Duncan, Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, said: "There is growing suspicion that the US Department of Justice is using its muscle in a highly unpleasant manner, and is targeting financial institutions beyond their own shores in a way that cannot be justified."
Elsewhere, CardPlayer.com is reporting that the Sunday guaranteed tournaments took substantial hits resulting from Neteller bowing out of the U.S. market, with PokerStars.com seeing 900 less entrants and Bodog.com and FullTiltPoker.com both back on the overlay side of their respective $100k and $750k guarantees. No doubt it will be interesting to see if the downswing continues next Sunday, when Bodog.com doubles its guaranteed purse to $200,000, a move they made prior to this past week's multi-front assault on online gaming.
The photo of Jessical Biel lounging in her bikini on the front of a yacht in Puerto Rico, where we may or may not be right now, is to remind you that today isn't Black Monday for everyone. And that counts for something. See more of Jessica in Puerto Rico over at WWTDD.com.
mmm.. i just hope the government doesn't come after ME because i bought stock in Partygaming...
Posted by: Kid Dynamite | January 22, 2007 at 01:59 PM