Whether President Bush signs a bill into law restricting online gambling via payment transactions or not, the parent company of Paradise Poker issued a statement early Monday saying they would remain active in the US market until further notice, or until banks outside the US decide to comply with the measure past early Saturday morning.

Already, the banking sector within the U.S. said they are not equipped to comply with measures that would require monitoring of electronic funds transactions.  The bill permits almost a year for the measures to be implemented.

Sportingbet said it had taken extensive advice over the weekend but was still unsure what specific actions it would take.

It said the full impact of the law, which has outlawed the processing of bets by banks and credit companies, was not completely clear. 

Sportingbet said it would suffer a material hit to its trading performance if its international banking partners outside America determined that the Act applied to them.

PartyGaming and 888.com, both publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange, issued statements Monday morning that they would be departing the US market. 

"If the President signs the act into law, the company (PRTY.L: Quote, Profile, Research) will suspend all real money gaming business with U.S. residents, and such suspension will continue indefinitely," it said in a statement.

"Any such suspension would also result in the group's financial performance falling significantly short of consensus forecasts for 2006 and 2007," it added.

Bodog.com Founder Calvin Ayre issued a statement to Gambling911.com late Sunday night: "Bodog is a broad based digital entertainment company that has long ago ceased to be dependent on any one revenue channel.  Bodog will continue to monitor things as they unfold but is not expected to make any changes until our study is completed."

That company's poker site is expected to benefit significantly from PartyPoker and 888 leaving the US market.

High ranking industry executives told Gambling911.com that PokerStars would also be following suit and leaving the US market, though an official announcement had not yet been made. 

Shares in online gambling stocks were expected to plummet Monday on the London Exchange.  If so, this would not be the first time that shareholders were adversely affected by internet gambling stocks taking a sudden nose dive.

In 1999, high flying Starnet witnessed its stocks crash on the "high risk" over-the-counter Vancouver Stock Market following a raid on its Vancouver office.  The RCMP froze Starnet's assets at the time.  That company immediately moved to Antigua and transformed itself into World Gaming, ironically the same company that Sportingbet was looking to purchase.  A number of other online gambling stocks crashed and never recovered.

DoylesRoom.com and its PamelaPoker.com brand (busty Baywatch beauty Pamela Anderson's site) are not anticipated to depart the US market at this time.

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Christopher Costigan, www.gambling911.com

Originally published October 2, 2006 3:39 am ET