Paddy Power One Step Closer to Entering US Market

The Irish Examiner reported Tuesday that Ireland's biggest - and the United Kingdom's third largest - bookmaker, Paddy Power, is now poised to enter the lucrative U.S. market.  Only problem is, they must wait for current legislation to be overturned.

The company expects this to happen within the next 12 months.

Paddy, while honing in on Congressman Barney Frank's press conference at this week's World Series of Poker, completely ignored The Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association's (www.imega.org) efforts in a court of law to have the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) eradicated.  A decision in that matter could occur as early as this week.

The Examiner reports that Paddy Power opened a book on the issue of legalisation in the US, at the beginning of this year after receiving requests from certain punters to do so. A spokesperson for the company said yesterday that while stakes punted began at an average of €10-€20; last week they suddenly shot up in value to around €500.  Much of that probably had to do with the anticipated decision in the iMEGA case. 

Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher