Anurag Dikshit, founder and major shareholder in online gambling company Party Gaming, has sold a significant portion of his holding.
It was announced at Bloomberg that the former billionaire will be offloading a parcel of 75 million PartyGaming PLC shares through his Crystal Ventures Ltd. holding vehicle. Dikshit did hold just over 100 million shares, or around 25% of issued stock in PartyGaming, which has grown to become one of the largest online gambling concerns in the world, and the largest UK listed online gambling organization by market capitalization. It operates online casinos and the enormously successful PartyPoker online poker site.
Prior to restrictive online gambling laws being enacted in the United States in late 2006, Dikshit's holding placed him firmly on Forbes global rich list with a net worth of over a billion dollars. The effect of UIGEA on Party Gaming's share price and a $300 million settlement with the US justice department has eroded this wealth considerably.
Dikshit also found himself on the receiving end of a rather nasty spray from US poker legend and online poker room operator Doyle Brunson, who labeled the PartyGaming settlement a sellout for the cause of poker players fighting for the right to play the game. Late last year Brunson apparently called the Indian entrepreneur 'appropriately named'.
At price of around 240 GBp, the sale should net Dikshit somewhere in the order of 200 million pound. Plenty of cash to pay for a name change at the Deed Poll office.
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