Doyle Brunson had harsh words for Anurag Dikshit who is one of Party Poker’s original founders. Dikshit has agreed to pay the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) $300 million and pleaded guilty at the District Court of New York on December 16th, 2008, for violating the Wire Act of 1961. He no longer has any official role with Party Poker or the main company Party Gaming, although he is still a major share holder and by pleading guilty he can face up to two years in jail.

In the latest blog on Doylesroom.com, Doyle Brunson had this to say about the $300 million agreement:

One thing for sure, Anurag Dikshit is appropriately named! Dikshit was one of the owners of Party Poker and became a multi-billionaire when Party went public. It looks like he would feel a sense of obligation to online poker, the industry that made him a rich man. Instead, he folded up like an accordion and plead guilty to breaking some kind of mystery law and is paying a 300 million dollar fine and a possible 2-year jail term. It certainly created some ill will from the other online poker sites. I personally can’t imagine what was going through his mind when he made his decision.

The mystery law that Doyle is referring to is the Wire Act of 1961, which is typically forced against online sports betting. It is pretty clear that Doyle is quite upset with Dikshit, especially since Doyle is a major share owner of DoylesRoom.com, which currently operates on the Microgaming Network. DoylesRoom is no longer allowed to accept new US players after Micrograming IP blocked any player from Kentucky and then in November made the decision to not accept any player from the United States all together.

Doyle Brunson has said countless times that he strongly feels that the government should have no control if players prefer to play poker within their own homes. These feelings are concreted by the fact that much of DoylesRoom.com marketing efforts target the US market. This is also the main reason that DoylesRoom.com announced that they are leaving the Microgaming Network and most likely be joining the Cake Poker Network, a network that accepts US players.

After Dikshit’s settlement with the DoJ, PartyGaming released a statement stating they were in negotiation process with the U.S. Government and this news has caused the Party Poker stock to soar. The Party Poker stock is traded under symbol ‘PRTY’ on the London Stock Exchange.