RITZ CLUB CONFIRMS CLOSURE REPORTS (Updated)

(528) (27-September-2006)

Legal confusion and inconsistencies cited 

Ritz Club , a land gaming club owned by the Barclay brothers at London's upmarket Ritz Hotel, confirmed this week that it had closed its online gaming site amid legal actions against the sector in Europe and the United States.

Earlier, online visitors to the website Ritz Club London.com , which since launching in 2002 has been extensively promoted as an elite online gambling venue, found the site closed with a notice (see previous InfoPowa report) advising:

"In light of the current confusion and inconsistency in online gaming legislation worldwide, the owners of The Ritz Club London Online have, regretfully, decided to close the site to new customers with immediate effect."

A spokeswoman for Ritz Club in London subsequently told Reuters that the site had been taken down just before the weekend and there were no longer any links from the club's main Web site to the online gaming site.

Shares across the online gaming sector have taken a series of knocks since July as some U.S. politicians seek to ban Internet gambling and as U.S. and European prosecutors target executives from BetonSports, Sportingbet and Bwin.com.

UK gaming stocks have lost a combined GBP 2.4 billion in value since the end of June as the industry continues to lose executives resigning to avoid hassles with law enforcers. On Monday, World Gaming said its chairman and a director had resigned.