PartyGaming.Com went public the other day. It is now "worth" $9 billion or so making it the most valuable publicly traded gambling stock in the world.

PartyGaming's $9 billion valuation is greater than MGM Mirage, for example, or Harrah's Entertainment. Thus an online gambling company has supplanted a brick and mortar gambling company as top dog on the valuation charts. Previously this happened with book retailing (Amazon vs. Barnes and Noble) and recently in media (Google vs. TimeWarner). There are many other similar examples as well.

The real story about PartyGaming is the craziness of the United States government's quixotic vendetta to continue to make online gambling illegal. And yet America has over 400 Indian Casinos, a huge number of other casinos, a myriad of state lottery games, bingo halls, horse racing, a thriving illegal sports betting business and on and on. Many of the legislators working hard to condemn online gambling represent states such as Nevada and Arizona where legal brick and mortar casinos thrive. My state, New York, is allowing various horse racing facilities to add thousands of slot machines. In fact just 30 minutes via car from downtown New York City in a place called Yonkers, the trotter racetrack will shortly be opening a 5,000 slot machine facility that will be worth billions.

The Internet cannot be stopped. And proof of this is that 80 percent of PartyGaming's revenues come from United States players and users who of course are participating online. Is not it time for the government to legalize online gambling so that at least the American economy can gain a foothold in a business that is going to thrive worldwide regardless of what actions Congress takes?

By the way there was a terrific article (requires a Times membership) in the Sunday New York Times business section entitled "At Party Gaming, Everything's Wild" by Kurt Eichenwald (26 June). The history of PartyGaming and the history of the American legal postion is well delineated. See what you think.