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For an industry rattled by US Justice Department domain seizures in recent years, it may not have been too much of a shock seeing PartyPoker.com mentioned as part of the much publicized indictment of video and image hosting website, Megaupload.com. The site was taken down by US authorities on Thursday with principles in the company charged with conspiracy.
The indictment concluded that Megaupload differed from other online file storage businesses in part because “a small proportion of users pay for storage, the business is dependent upon advertising. Adverts are primarily viewed when files are downloaded and the business model is therefore not based upon storage but upon maximizing downloads”.
That’s where PartyPoker.com comes in as the indictment shows the world’s second largest online poker company had entered into an advertising arrangement with Megaupload.com that continued up until March 18 of this past year.
The online payment processing company of Moneybookers, which is used extensively by online gamblers, was also named in the indictment as having been used as a resource to transfer funds to and from Megaupload.com.
Moneybookers Limited(Moneybookers.com)is an United Kingdom-based globale-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers over the Internet. The MegaConspiracy has charged various rates through Moneybookers Limited for premium subscriptionson its websites, including €9.99 for monthly subscriptions, €59.99 for yearly subscriptions, or €199.99 for lifetime subscriptions. Between August 1, 2010 and July 31, 2011, theMoneybookers Limited accounts for the Mega Conspiracy have collected in excess of $5 millionfrom subscribers of Mega Sites and transferred that money to an account in Hong Kongassociated with the Mega Conspiracy.
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AdBrite, Inc.(AdBrite.com )is an online advertising network based in SanFrancisco, California. AdBrite, Inc. provides advertisements for over 100,000 Internet sites andis believed to be amongst the top ten advertising networks on the Internet. From on or aboutSeptember 2, 2005 until on or about May 24, 2008, AdBrite paid at least $840,000 to the MegaConspiracy for advertising.44.
PartyGaming plc is a company based in the United Kingdom that has operated PartyPoker.com since 2001. PartyPoker.com has more than 3 million visitors annually and isone of the largest online poker rooms. PartyGaming’s advertising contract with the members of the Mega Conspiracy was initiated on or about November 12, 2009 and has resulted in paymentsof more than $3,000,000 to the Conspiracy. This contract was still active as recently as on orabout March 18, 2011.
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
