PARTY GAMING BOWS OUT OF FTSE 100 THIS WEEK

(643) (9-October-2006)

Online poker's most successful company, hit by US legislative proposals will exit top companies list

The Guardian newspaper reports that PartyGaming is to lose its coveted place in the FTSE 100 index following the serious decline of its shares on the introduction of anti-online gambling measures by the US Congress last week.

Tomorrow will be its last day as a FTSE 100 member, after which it will be relegated to the FTSE 250 index.

Party Gaming became the first and only online gaming company to achieve the elite club of Britain's 100 biggest companies little more than a year ago, as its shares surged on the back of huge growth in the online gaming market.

But the US clampdown on internet gambling financial channels has ravaged shares of PartyGaming, The Guardian reports. More than GBP 4 billion was wiped from the stockmarket value of the sector last week with PartyGaming alone losing more than GBP 2 billion.

There was further fall-out in the sector this (Monday) morning as much smaller rival World Gaming called a halt to trading in its shares.

WG directors said that, following legal advice, they had requested the share suspension "...due to a fundamental uncertainty over its ability to continue trading". Last week the company warned that it might be "in technical default" of its loan conditions.