Like a lot of other people who follow the happenings in the poker world, I recently noticed that Party Gaming (parent company of Party Poker) co-founder Anurag Dikshit pleaded guilty to charges of violating the United States Wire Act of 1961.  Basically this means that it took the US 2 years to find him guilty of offering online poker to Americans from 1999 to 2006 through the usage of communication wires.

For his punishment, Dikshit has to pay the United States government a hefty sum of $300 million in addition to possible jail time.  And according to news reports, Dikshit has already paid $100 million of the settlement and is set to pay the next 2 installments of $100 million within a six month span.  And the thing of it is, Dikshit only owns 27% of Party Gaming so how does he have $300 million sitting around to hand over to the US government in a six month span?

All of this really got me wondering just how much money Party Gaming could have made during its glory days before the UIGEA was enacted.  Now you’ve obviously got to throw in the fact that Party Gaming’s premier site, Party Poker, was the biggest room for about a 7 year span before 2006 and that’s why Dikshit was getting rich.  But how rich he got is the question. (P.S. You guys should also try out Betfred poker as they have a kick ass $600 sign up bonus).

Well according to the Forbes Magazine list of the world’s richest people, Anurag Dikshit was ranked as the 207th richest person in the world with $3.3 billion.  No wonder he can afford the $300 million fine!  What’s more is that two other Party Poker owners in Ruth Parasol and Russ DeLeon both own 14% of the company and share spot 424 on the list with $1.8 each.

So together the 3 are worth $6.9 billion which is mostly comprised of profits from the Party Gaming and Party Poker successes.  This makes the estimated $40 – $50 million bankroll of poker stud Phil Ivey look like pocket change.