After completing it's flotation on the London Stock Exchange successfully, PartyGaming shares rose another 9 percent in early trading. The PartyGaming IPO is the biggest in the U.K. in five years, and PartyGaming is expected to be admitted to the FTSE 100 this autumn.
Trading at 125.5p at 11:23, PartyGaming is now valued over £5 billion, more than traditional FTSE 100 companies like British Airways [BAY.L] or Imperial Chemical Industries [ICI.L].
The PartyGaming flotation is controversial because around 90 percent of it's customers are U.S. residents, and the U.S. Department of Justice maintains that offering online gaming (including poker) is illegal under the 1961 Wire Act.
However, there is currently no litigation backing up the U.S. DoJ position. On the contrary, in 2001 a federal judge (Duval, New Orleans) ruled that the wire act "does not prohibit Internet gambling on a game of chance", and this ruling has been reaffirmed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.