Anurag Dikshit
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Anurag Dikshit (; born 1973) is an Indian businessman. In 2006 Dikshit became head of the online poker company PartyGaming's research and special projects. By 2009, ''Forbes'' described him as a billionaire. In connection with PartyGaming, in 2009 he pled guilty to one count of
online gambling Online gambling (also known as iGaming or iGambling) is any kind of gambling conducted on the internet. This includes virtual poker, casinos, and sports betting. The first online gambling venue opened to the general public was ticketing for th ...
in violation of the
Federal Wire Act The Interstate Wire Act of 1961, often called the Federal Wire Act, is a United States federal law prohibiting the operation of certain types of betting businesses in the United States. It begins with the text: Several legal opinions and rulin ...
and received a $300 million fine.Online Gambling Billionaire Cashes In
Forbes.com (20 October 2009). Retrieved on 15 June 2011.
After selling 23% of his stake in the company's
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
, and a further two-thirds, in October 2009, Nils Pratley, ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', 20 October 2009
Guardian.co.uk: Dealing in poker profit
/ref> he sold the remainder of his stake in PartyGaming in 2010.''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'', 25 January 201
PartyGaming founder Anurag Dikshit severs ties with company after £114m share sale
/ref>


Early life and education

Anurag Dikshit was born in October 1971. He was born in Jharkhand, India. He spent his childhood going to school in the town of Dhanbad. He completed schooling at De Nobili School, FRI. He has a bachelor's degree in computer science and engineering from IIT Delhi. He graduated in 1994, and afterwards moved to the United States to work as a software developer.


Career


CMC and AT&T

Following graduation, Dikshit worked as a software developer in the United States at CMC, as a systems analyst, and later for Websci and
AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...
as a consultant.Anurag Dikshit – High roller who came late to the poker party
''The Guardian''. Retrieved on 15 June 2011.


PartyGaming board

In 1997, he and his college fellow alumni Vikrant Bhargava founded PartyPoker.com, with American Ruth Parasol hiring Dikshit to write the software in 1998. In 2005, Dikshit hired Bhargava for additional projects. At age 25, Dikshit was asked by ParasolRuth Parasol
Bonitatrust.org. Retrieved on 15 June 2011.
to write the betting software for her company Starluck Casino. He joined in 1998, one year after it was founded by Parasol, and wrote the software that "allowed gamblers in different parts of the world to pay poker with one another." Starluck Casino was launched as PartyPoker in 2001 after Dikshit and Parasol switched their focus from
roulette Roulette (named after the French language, French word meaning "little wheel") is a casino game which was likely developed from the Italy, Italian game Biribi. In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various grouping ...
and
blackjack Blackjack (formerly black jack or ''vingt-un'') is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as " twenty-one ...
to
poker Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...
. Since online gambling was illegal in the US at the time, the company's servers and offices were based in
Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...
, where Dikshit settled. The company floated on the
London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...
in June 2005, with Dikshit earning a significant sum due to owning a considerable portion of the company. In May 2006 Dikshit stepped down from PartyGaming's board of directors and took a position as head of the company's research and special projects.PartyGaming's Dikshit quits board
Forbes (24 May 2006). Retrieved on 15 June 2011.
In that position, he developed new products but largely stepped back from media appearances. He also became PartyGaming's chief operations officer.


Fine and exiting PartyGaming

In 2008, he ranked No. 701 on the Forbes list of the World's Billionaires, and had a net worth of $1 billion. By 2008, he remained the largest individual shareholder of PartyGaming with 27% of the stock, even after selling 23%. Becoming the "first high-profile internet gambling tycoon to willingly face justice in a US court," according to ''The Guardian,'' after traveling to New York, in December 2008, Dikshit entered a guilty plea to one count of
online gambling Online gambling (also known as iGaming or iGambling) is any kind of gambling conducted on the internet. This includes virtual poker, casinos, and sports betting. The first online gambling venue opened to the general public was ticketing for th ...
in violation of the
Federal Wire Act The Interstate Wire Act of 1961, often called the Federal Wire Act, is a United States federal law prohibiting the operation of certain types of betting businesses in the United States. It begins with the text: Several legal opinions and rulin ...
and agreed to forfeit $300 million. "I came to believe there was a high probability it was in violation of U.S. laws", Dikshit told U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff in New York, referring to PartyGaming's activity. At the time, he still owned approximately 28% of the company's shares, equal at the time to about $300 million.''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', 17 December 2008
PartyGaming up 27% as founder pleads guilty in US court
/ref> He paid off the fine in June 2009. After having sold 23% of his stake in the IPO years earlier, he sold a further two-thirds in October 2009. He sold off the remainder of his stake in PartyGaming in January 2010. According to Forbes, he donated the proceeds from the sales to the Kusuma Trust, a charity he'd founded several years prior to aid at-risk children. Although he'd faced a maximum of two years in jail, in 2010, he was given a one-year probation.


Kusuma Trust

According to ''The Telegraph'', in 2010, Dikshit and the
Sainsbury family The Sainsbury family (also Lord Sainsbury and family and incorrectly the Sainsbury's family) founded Sainsbury's, the UK's second-largest supermarket chain. Today, the family has many interests, including business, politics, philanthropy, arts, and ...
were Britain's biggest donors, both giving away over £100 million that year. In 2013, he had been an early funder of Next Education Private Limited in
Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...
. By 2014, he had transferred around £172.4 million to his fund the Kusuma Trust, registered in Gibraltar. That year, the
Ministry of Home Affairs An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the i ...
in India stalled a transfer of funds from the Kusuma Trust to Amnesty International India. Amnesty did not have the necessary registration to receive funds from abroad, with the matter put under inquiry. At the time, Kusuma funded 10 organisations related to the field of education. In 2023, he remains a trustee at Kusuma Trust.


Personal life

In 2023, he and his wife lived with their two children in London. As a citizen of India, in 2008, he was also a resident of the United Kingdom and Gibraltar, having first set up a residence in Gibraltar in 2001. Dikshit and his wife set up the Kusuma Gallery, sponsored through the Kusuma Trust, at the V&A’s Photography Centre in 2023.


See also

* List of IIT Delhi people * List of British Indians in business and industry * List of people from Jharkhand


References


External links


Financial Times article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dikshit, Anurag 1973 births Living people Businesspeople from Bihar British businesspeople of Indian descent Indian emigrants to the United Kingdom IIT Delhi alumni Date of birth missing (living people) De Nobili Schools alumni People from Dhanbad