Today the online gaming portal PartyGaming revealed that they are close to making a settlement with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) in order to avoid a criminal plea.
This announcement was made before they were expected to appear in court in New York. Anurag Dikshit is the biggest shareholder in PartyGaming and he was the one who was expected to show up in court and plead guilty to a charge relating to taking wagers over the internet from US players.
Mr Dikshit is a co founder of PartyGaming and holds 27% of the shares in the company will have to pay the sum of $300 Million in fines on continue to co-operate with DoJ's investigations.
Dikshit is a resident of India and is risking going to jail for 2 years by going to the US in order to make the plea agreement.
PartyGaming is a company that is publicly traded at the London stock exchange and has seen its value decrease a lot after the US passed the UIGEA bill back in 2006 making it impossible for PartyGaming to operate in the US. However a lot of people within the US government believe that the US will eventually take a different stance at online gaming and maybe even try to make it a regulated market.
The recently appointed PartyGaming Chief Jim Ryan said: "We're hopeful that, in the fullness of time, the new [Obama] administration will take steps to regulate it."
According to reports coming from the UK it is expected that PartyGaming will report to the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday regarding Mr Dikshit's plea agreement with the US. If they manage to reach a settlement this could be a way for PartyGaming to resume consolidation negotiations with other companies.
Mr. Dikshit... can't imagine him having fun in school 
