The Non-Prosecution agreement with the US authorities will be welcomed by the majority of those in the online industry as a break from the past with the opportunity now to move forward.

Some operators, however, will have misgivings. The admission of guilt is unlikely to rest easy with the ‚Brit‘ companies who have traded from a country where gambling is entirely legal. As far as they are concerned they have never done anything wrong.

There is also a measure of hypocrisy at play — on the one hand the US has heaped a heavy fine on PartyGaming of USD 105 million and yet sometime this year Congressman Frank will lay a Bill down that could lead to legalisation of online poker. So the sinners have been found guilty and redeemed all in one year.

The moot question is that after all of this will the UK-listed companies be granted US licences in the future. The USA, the land of the free? It is if you are American.