PartyGaming chief quits

[Mousey]

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Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk, Wednesday March 5 2008

This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Wednesday March 05 2008. It was last updated at 14:20 on March 05 2008.

Mitch Garber, chief executive of PartyGaming, surprised the City today by announcing that he is quitting the company to return to North America with his family.


Garber, who has rebuilt the former FTSE 100 company since it was badly hit by America's ban on online gambling, is contracted until May 2009 but will leave earlier if a successor is appointed.

If the Canadian citizen sees out his contract, he will have picked up an estimated 14m through a controversial pay scheme.

Garber, 43, joined PartyGaming in April 2006. Later that year the company's share price collapsed when the Safe Ports Act, a piece of anti-online gambling legislation, was passed in the United States in October 2006. This wiped out around four-fifths of its revenue at a stroke, forcing the firm to seek new opportunities in other countries and branch out from its core focus on poker.

"There is never a good time to announce that you intend to leave a company, but I personally ...


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- CEO
03.05.08, 6:18 AM ET

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - PartyGaming PLC expects to reach a settlement with the US Department of Justice at some stage this year, preventing retrospective legal action being taken against it, chief executive Mitch Garber told reporters.

The online gaming company, which was forced to shut down its US-facing operations following the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in Oct 2006, announced last year that it had initiated talks with the DoJ.

It hoped to end uncertainty over the possibility of action by law enforcement agencies regarding activity in the US prior to the legislation being passed.

'These discussions are progressing constructively and I remain confident that we will reach a resolution in 2008,' said Garber, who was unable to give a tighter timescale on when a deal is likely.

'It's very hard to predict. There's some fluidity ...