At the time, it was an industry in crisis. Online poker had exploded in 2002 when amateur player Chris Moneymaker came from nowhere to win the World Series of Poker. Revenue surged from $87.5 million in 2001 to $2.4 billion by 2005, while one of the most successful sites, PartyPoker, floated on the London Stock Exchange for £1 billion. But the US government passed The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006 that prohibited banks processing money that was connected to it. The poker companies were suddenly unable to process their player’s wins and losses. The end seemed all but inevitable.