LONDON -- As reported by Reuters: "Online casino PartyGaming (PRTY.L) raised fears on Tuesday that Internet poker's recent boom was starting to slow, causing its shares to fall by a quarter and wiping 1.3 billion pounds off its market value.
The owner of PartyPoker, StarluckCasino and PartyBingo said new poker players were spending less and proving less committed than the hard core of players who helped it grow to its 4.6 billion pounds London flotation in June.
"'Whilst the online gaming market and poker in particular continues to show strong year-on-year growth, the rate of growth is continuing to moderate,' Chief Executive Richard Segal said as the group announced an 81 percent rise in first-half sales.
"Shares in the Gibraltar-licensed group fell 21.5 percent to 123 pence by 0848 GMT (0948 BST), taking the group's value back down to 4.9 billion pounds and wiping out nearly all the gains since its flotation.
"…PartyGaming said the attrition of new poker players was higher than expected, while the average amount they were spending had fallen 7 percent in the first half to a 'yield per active player day' of $17.8…"
