Grand Monaco sold to Playshare

[jetset]

GRAND MONACO SOLD TO PLAYSHARE

Did the UIGEA scare off online casino owners?

Grand Monaco online casino seemed to have everything going for it when it launched earlier this year - a great site, experienced management with sound financial backing and top tier gambling software, yet this week the news started filtering through that the operation has been sold for an undisclosed sum to the Playshare group, joining Pokershare and Casinoshare in the groups inventory.

In a deal finalised at the beginning of November but announced this week, Playshare plc acquired Grand Monaco parent group Grand Gaming Group (3G) together with its affiliate marketing program 3GPartner and a German site branded Deutsches Grand Monaco.com. Playshare spokesmen say the deal is part of the group's ambitious strategy to be one of the top 5 online gaming groups within the next 5 years.

Playshare also has expansion plans for the Asian and Spanish markets, although these were not detailed in the company statement.

[Mousey]

Well... I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I haven't been impressed w/CS at GM lately, so perhaps they've just been distracted by the sellout.

Thanks for the info Jetset!

[aussiekeith]

I was surprised when I received an email myself that Grand Monaco has sold its operation. They certainly have a good system running there and a nice casino with good promotions and great, fast service, why they decided to sell out has me very surprised as I thought that with talking with Jon Jon the affiliate manager when the casino first started up, they would be in it for the long haul as they did have great plans for the future and have set the casino up over the last few months for clients from Europe in quite a few different languages etc, so as not to be reliant on the USA.
They also had plans for Poker and also Bingo in the future so expansion was in their long term plans. Very surprising to me that they have sold out to Playshare indeed.

[jetset]

I think that most of the successful companies in the Internet gaming space had ambitious and progressive plans to advance the technology, the systems, the games, new markets, the experience etc etc etc....many had even set off on forms of real regulation with the better jurisdictions and private outfits......then along came Bill Frist and the UIGEA.

I think with many of these guys they are just not prepared to take the risk of continuing in US business, and for some without the US business the game was not worth the candle. Others are nervous about what an apparently uncontrolled DoJ will do next, and they're concerned for the safety of their investments under the current US regime.

That said, I am among those optimists who think that American players will not be left in the online gambling wilderness indefinitely. I think we're going to see some very interesting Vegas-initiated developments over the next couple of years.

[aussiekeith]

I am sure that players from the USA could find a way to pay, by using offline banking or whatever, but they cant play if online casinos choose to make players from the USA void to play. And to block USA players so quick off the mark surprises me as the banks have quite sometime yet to enact the law to block sending and receiving money by USA players to USA bank accounts.
Anyway time will tell, I guess.

[jetset]

I of course agree with you to some extent, but guys with a lot of money tied up in private companies placed at risk by this p.o.s. legislation, or executives who are accountable to investors in the public companies may be taking a different and company-centric view of the risks attached and the possibilities for the short to medium term that might exist elsewhere.

I think there's also an element - at least among the big publicly listed outfits - of hoping that prompt compliance before the enforcement regulations have even been worked out will at some future point put them in good standing with US officialdom when (or if) the US politicians regain their senses and kick this law into touch.