A plea to all affiliate managers...

[DealerDan]

I know that now is a very trying time in the industry. There's a lot of uncertainty at the moment, a lot of people are having(albiet-understandably) implusive and/or kneejerk reactions, from players, to affiliates, to gaming companies themseleves.

We also all understand that with all this uncertainty, a lot of you probably don't know what is currently going on, or do know your companies plans, but can't talk about it at this time.

All I ask, is that you all try your damndest to keep affiliates informed. If anything, affiliates are going to become even more important to you than ever before. I'm sure every affiliate on this board has had problems with lack of communication from every company one way or the other in the past. I'm not trying to point fingers here but rather cite a recent example, where I was personally informed during conversation with an affiliate manager to stop promoting Monaco Gold Casino due to legalities. You can see the thread here, where there was a lot of confusion with this whole situation, with some not knowing what was going on and still actively promoting it, others who had been told prior to this.

All I ask, is that you do your best to keep us all informed of all developments. This includes mass e-mails to all your members, threads on here letting everyone know, etc. I've spoken to a few affiliates tonight who are extremely concerned that a majority of casinos are just going to up and disappear tomorrow, with both customers and affiliates money. This is just an example of how worried many of us are in this situation.

So please, to the best of your abilities, I request that you keep us informed of all updates, of any changes at any of the sites you have under you, and how it may impact us, both in a timely fashion, and to all members at once, so there is no confusion, when you have the ability to do so.

Yours,

[Stephen]

I agree Dan, I will do my best to keep everyone informed, as soon as I am. Sportingbet is a leader in the industry, so a lot of eyes will be on what we do in the end.

This statement has been released by Sportingbet plc:

Sportingbet Plc
("Sportingbet" or the "Group")
Statement regarding US Legislation

The Board of Sportingbet is disappointed to announce that late on Friday, 29 September 2006, a Committee of Conference of the United States Congress attached the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (the "Act") to HR 4954, the Safe Port Act, which was then duly passed. The legislation is expected to be signed by President Bush and enacted in the very near future. Upon enactment, Internet Gaming companies will be immediately forbidden from accepting US financial transactions for the purposes of unlawful Internet Gambling, to the extent that they are considered unlawful under current US Federal and State law. The Act is not prescriptive as to what is and what is not unlawful under current US Federal and State law.
Following enactment, the United States Treasury and Federal Reserve have a period of 270 days to draft regulations and procedures to implement the new Act with respect to actions US financial institutions shall be required to take to identify and block transactions related to unlawful Internet Gambling. The Board is unclear at this time what will be included in such regulations and procedures and how this and other provisions of the Act may or may not be enforced against non-US corporates.
Whilst the Act has not sought to extend the scope of the 1961 Wire Act to specifically include Internet Gambling, the Act does seek to prevent certain forms of Internet Gambling in the US by prohibiting and criminalising relevant companies from making or receiving financial transactions using the US banking network. Should Sportingbet's non-US international banking partners to determine that the Act applied to them, then Sportingbet would no longer be able to take deposits from US residents and this would have a material impact on the Company's trading performance.
The Board notes that US horse racing and US fantasy sports, insofar as they are lawful today, together with US intrastate and US intratribal internet gambling have been exempted from the legislation. The Board will be seeking clarification as to whether the Act is in violation of US commitments under the General Agreement of Trade and Services and representations made by the US in recent World Trading Organisation proceedings.
Since becoming aware of the Act being passed, the Board has taken extensive advice and will continue to take further advice over the next few days with the objective of further understanding the applicability and impact of the Act to Sportingbet's US facing business prior to taking any specific actions as a result of the Act. Once these determinations have been completed, the Board will make a further announcement and intends to comply with all international law that it is advised prevails in this matter.
During the year ended 31 July 2006, approximately 62% of gross win of Sportingbet was generated from US based customers, 26% from European customers and 12% from the rest of the World.

Stephen