Co-founder of PartyGaming, PartyPoker software developer Anurag Dikshit has announced that he will sell his entire stake at the company and leave the gaming industry for good to concentrate on his charitable work in South Asia.

In the first stage Dikshit will sell approximately two thirds of his 28% stake to institutional investors for an estimated £188 million. The rest of his shares will go on sale "when the time is right," according to the announcement. The money will not go to Dikshit personally but to his charity foundation instead.

Dikshit's spokesman Shimon Cohen said, “He wants to move on with his life, sell his shares, endow them in his charitable foundation, and move away from the whole issue and industry of PartyGaming.”

According to reports, Dikshit fell out with the co-owners Russ DeLeon and Ruth Parasol when he pleaded guilty to Internet gambling charges relating to time pre-UIGEA and received a fine of $300 million. DeLeon and Parasol have yet to reach a settlement with the US Justice Department on their own behalf.

PartyGaming share dropped by 12% at the London Stock Exchange after the announcement, but analysts believe it will bounce back. Morgan Stanley analyst Vaughan Lewis believes the move merely reflects Dikshit's own desire to leave the industry behind and concentrate on other projects.

36-year old Anurag Dikshit played a major part in PartyPoker's rise to the top of its' field in the early part of the decade. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1994 and met Ruth Parasol four years later. The American lawyer and businesswoman persuaded him to join PartyGaming for a considerable number of shares in the company. PartyPoker was launched in 2001. Today Dikshit's personal wealth is estimated at $1 billion.

Source: EGR Magazine.