Empire Online target of casinos buyout is an up-to-date article on Popular Online Casinos

It seems the sharks in the online gambling industry may be the ones now being hunted as the online casino industry makes further strides into becoming an industry just like any other, full of IPOs and buy outs and hostile takeovers. This is on the news that Empire Online, a new member to the online casinos IPO club, is the subject of a takeover bid roughly worth 790 million British pounds, or 1.2 billion euros. Speculation surrounding the takeover points the finger of interest as originating at Party Gaming, one of the internet's most successful gambling venues, which has already had marketing agreements with Empire Online and which itself went public two months ago on the London Stock Exchange and met with great success.

Empire isn't like other online casino sites, and makes its money primarily as a directory helping players find poker sites and other kinds of online casinos. If Empire Online is taken over by Party Gaming, it would secure the online poker giant's place as the premier online gambling business (and target of takeover bids itself in all likelihood). Party Gaming is best known for its Party Poker and Party Bingo sites, which are often advertised on major world outlets such as CNBC.

Online casinos are the subject of increasing interest by businesses around the world that want to get in on the large amounts of money it is perceived that can be made by getting in on what many perceive to still be the ground floor of a growing industry. About the only sticking point to some is the fact that in many countries around the world, such as the United States and Australia, online gambling in the form of online casinos, poker rooms, etc. is considered to be illegal under existing laws even though online casino gambling is itself not explicitly or specifically prohibited by these laws.