PartyPoker Co-Founders to Divest as Part of New Jersey Licensing Process

October 31, 2013
PartyPoker Co-Founders to Divest as Part of New Jersey Licensing Process

Ruth Parasol DeLeon and James DeLeon have agreed to divest nearly 117 million shares of bwin.party, according a company press release.  This agreement would allow the company to receive a transactional waiver to offer internet gaming in New Jersey.  The press release states the couple “elected, pursuant to a divorce settlement and for reasons of privacy, to enter into a divestiture agreement with bwin.party and the DGE (New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement) rather than submit individual License applications”. 

The shares will be placed into separate divestiture trusts and sold over the next 36 months.  The divestiture trusts will have 24 months to sell the shares.  These transactions may take place in private or in the open market.  If the trusts have not divested after 24 months, bwin.party will take over the process. 

Bwin.party will obtain a transactional waiver so that it may participate in the New Jersey internet gaming market.  These waivers will be issued to companies that have completed a substantial portion of the licensing process but have not completed it.  The shares held by the Deleon’s will go into the divestiture trusts as soon as bwin.party receives the transactional waiver.  The divestiture arrangements are contingent upon bwin.party receiving full licensing in New Jersey.   

Ruth Parasol DeLeon founded PartyGaming in 1997.  James DeLeon joined the company in 2001 where he was a consultant and processed payments.  The couple married in 2003. 

Bwin.party partnered with Borgata, Atlantic City’s highest grossing resort, to offer online poker and casino games to players located in New Jersey.  The market is expected to open to the public on November 26, 2013. 

PartyGaming paid a $105 million settlement to the U.S. Government in 2009.  One of the company’s co-founders reached a $300 million settlement in a separate agreement and later sold his entire stake in PartyGaming.  The company later merged with bwin to form bwin.party.

 

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