Saturday, April 14, 2007

Online gambling company PartyGaming PLC said Wednesday it will no longer allow customers in Turkey to access its gambling sites after legislation was passed prohibiting online gaming offered by unauthorized domestic or foreign companies. The company, which pulled out of the lucrative U.S. market in October after the government shut down the industry there, said that revenue from customers in Turkey does not represent a significant amount of its revenue. PartyGaming "has now taken all reasonable steps to ensure that customers in Turkey are denied access to any of the group's gaming sites," the company said in a statement. The shares rose 4 percent to 58.5 pence (US$1.15; euro0.85) on the London Stock Exchange. Last month, PartyGaming reported a 56 percent plunge in annual net profits following the U.S. government's decision to ban Internet gambling, but said its attempts to find revenue elsewhere were beginning to bear fruit.