[Educator]

There is a lot of nonsense on this thread.

I am somewhat of an unwilling expert as I bought a fairly big chunk or Partygaming when it was first sold in the US. I knew the business, and since Warren Buffet is a smart man and says invest in what you know, I bought. I know how important it is for there to be many players on a site and Party was the dominant site and I also thought it was reasonably well run. I knew the business could never keep growing at the same rate it had in the years since Moneymaker won the World Series, but I assumed anybody with half a brain knew that and a slowing of the growth rate would not freak people out like it did. I was wrong. There were also a couple of other issues that left a bad taste in my mouth. Before they went public they posted an earnings statement, but they never mentioned that they were paying off a $750m loan that they had made to themselves to buy what appears to be the company that supplied the software and servers, which they of course already owned under a different name. This gave them a chance to extract money through a different path than selling stock and had the effect of lowering their previous years and first 'public' quarter earnings substantially. However, this is almost completely or is completely paid off (they are taking in huge amounts of money!!!) so the next earning should look dramatically better even if they don't grow at all.

With respect to the skins, they said they were going to dump them and that they found it a horrible business model even before they went public. Party doesn't give rake backs, but I got $200 for signing, another $150 two weeks later for making another deposit, and a month later was offered another $100. Given the amount I am playing it seems it has to be a better deal than if I was getting a 30% rake back. (I never play more than two games as my earnings seem to go down with more than that as I lose too much from not knowing who should be called, but this is a personal decision). I can understand why multigamers might suffer and while it is true that you are important, like unpaid props for the site, you are probably still a relatively small percent of their business. They probably feel it is better to use cash to generate new player than to keep you kids happy. They are also interested in expanding their casino operation as this is less cyclical and more profitable and they have the capital and means to expand into a business arena which now has high barriers to entry. That is the reason for the blackjack and the sidebets and the eventual direct connection to the casino. All of these things are not so good for the professional poker player, but not being good for you is not their principal concern. I have seen brick and mortar clubs increase the rake by going from time collections to a drop, institute jackpots and do all sorts of things that aren't good for professionals and end up only increasing their business.

I assume they are quite sure this will be good for them, though of course they could be as wrong as I was when I bought their stock, but thats horseracing. I am also sure they care what you think but not enough to continue with a business model they have known for a long time was not good for a big company in their market position.

Good luck to you all.