Very interesting article on PartyPoker founder
 

She's a total crook, with a long history of shady phone and porn deals. Most troubling, one of her prior ventures appears to have been a casino that was possibly rigged.

(Reg required)

Oh, and she's repeatedly referred to as very attractive, but Google pictures finds little evidence to back that up.

Damn:

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That Parasol would become one of the wealthiest women in the world with a net worth of $1.8 billion — ranking alongside Cuban and Wynn, among others, at 164th on the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans — shocks few who knew in her high school. At the exclusive Marin Academy, Parasol was known as "Ruthie Ruthless" and posed for her senior portrait in a fur coat with the caption "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend."
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I have to admit, she sounds smart as hell. I kinda respect her.

Her Dad sounds cool too:

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The oldest of three daughters, Parasol was born into an unconventional family, even by the relaxed standards of Marin County in the 1960s. Her father, Richard, is a heavy-set, flamboyant Holocaust survivor who loves boating and the opposite sex. He sometimes cruises San Francisco Bay on a speedboat with topless women.
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Looks like we can also thank Ruth for this:

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By January 1996, Richard and Ricarda Parasol owned 49% of a holding company that funded Warshavsky's best-known venture, Internet Entertainment Group, which distributed a sex video made by actress Pamela Anderson and rocker Tommy Lee.
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From Pamela and Tommy to Party Poker. Crazy....

i know this is off-topic, but does anyone know anything about the pokerstars owner(s)?

it must be one of the most secretive business groups ever...

wow thats kind of amazing. this is new news for me. i am like speechless right now, how can someone like that have the brains to pull this off. no wonder its called PARTY poker.

I find it amazing that someone related to the gambino crime family was involved in the creation of the most popular gamlbing software. Not to mention the other scams that the key players were involved with. It makes me question whether or not the software, which is guarenteed by the government of Gibraltar, is rigged in such a way that big hands go up against one another more often and that draws are more frequent then they should be (therefore a rake based on pot size would get bigger as more money entered the pot). And because of the source software would be held off site and no consumer would be able to see the randomizing engine, gives me the shivers.

It does give me pause
 

Welcome Akverno. Appreciate your quality posts.

I don't believe that Party is rigged, based on the risk/reward ratio. They can simply make too much money by not cheating their players. The chance of them running above board is even greater now that they are a publicly traded company.

But I did find the article troubling. I think Party isn't rigged just because it is (I hope) more profitable for them not to be, not because I trust them. It is interesting that there is no way the founder of Party could get a gambling license in the United States. And it makes me wonder if this hurts the legalization cause.