The newspaper The Guardian reports that Party Gaming CEO Mitch Garber is less than happy with the manner in which the Department of Justice appears to be pursuing offshore gambling operators that seek customers in.

Speaking less than an hour after learning of the arrest of Sportingbet chairman Peter Dicks, which led to an immediate decline in online gambling stocks, Garber said: "We are a FTSE 100-compliant company. If the department of justice has any issue with our business, I would hope they would notify us and communicate that with us fully."

Garber also said he was hopeful that the company would be licensed by the UK Gambling Commission, a move that would add regulatory legitimacy to the world's largest online gambling group.

Like most internet operators, PartyGaming is licensed in an offshore territory and not subject to regulation in the main markets in which it operates. He praised the British authorities, and the Treasury in particular, for a "progressive" attitude to online betting.

He attacked countries that appeared to be mirroring US attempts to ban online gambling while protecting their domestic industries. "They are penalising companies for being innovative and for their speed of growth - which is often faster than governments can cope with. All these countries have gaming themselves: casinos, racetracks and the like ... All we want is regulation."

To operate under a licence, PartyGaming would have to pay tax as a gambling operator in . With other online gaming operators, it has been in lengthy talks with the Treasury over the level of such a tax. Garber said it would have to be "competitive internationally".