March 22 - The forecast for the online gambling industry looked significantly sunnier after yesterday's news that the Sportingbet charges in Louisiana have been settled (thanks to some good old fashioned USA extortion), and that Neteller should be able to return their US clients' funds within 75 days.
Sportingbet directors had no intention of going back to Louisiana to face criminal proceedings and when it became apparent that they were not going to be extradited an "amicable" deal was brokered. Sportingbet coughed up $400,000 and that money will be split between the DA's office, the p-oh-lice force, and the state attorney general's office.
It's basically extortion but everyone wins, and who knows maybe the money will go towards a State literacy program?
There has been more good news this week for online poker with rumors abounding that the WTO will soon publicly rule against the USA in the free trade battle with Antigua surrounding online gambling.
We expect that the shares of publicly traded online poker companies like PartyGaming will receive a substantial boost from all this news, as will other online gambling stocks like Cryptologic and 888.
