______________________________________________________________________ Ford Tarus SHO ______________________________________________________________________ Internet game gambling proposed __________________________________________________________________________ Copyright © 1996 Nando.net Copyright © 1996 Kansas City Star
LAS VEGAS (Oct 6, 1996 8:06 p.m. EDT) -- Casinos of the future will be as close as your living room and betting will be as easy as a few clicks of the mouse. And the future may be only a few weeks away.
At the World Gaming Congress & Expo in Las Vegas last week, an Internet casino company announced that its "virtual reality" casino will begin accepting electronic wagers on blackjack, craps, slot machines and other games before the end of the year, and maybe by Halloween.
"We're not looking for big-time gamblers," said Peter Michaels, chief executive of World Wide Web Casinos Inc., based in Antigua. "We want people who want to have a little fun....We think this is the wave of the future."
Gamblers can place bets after establishing a minimum $300 credit account with the company through computer transmission of a standard bank credit card number.
There's an unquenched thirst for Internet entertainment, said Frank Feather, who delivered the gaming expo's keynote address. Feather predicted that public demand will blunt efforts to outlaw Internet gambling. Not only will it thrive, he said, but it will become a principal gaming medium.
"The Internet is the new frontier of gaming," Feather said. "It basically eradicates geography....Internet gaming will be unstoppable."
[...]
But how long Michaels' Web site gambling parlor -- and a few others also about to go on line -- will stay in business is problematic.
Later this month, another would-be Internet casino operator will be in a Minnesota courtroom, defending his operation. The international gaming industry will be watching that test case to learn whether states can regulate Internet commerce.
Not having anything located in the US and other countries which restrict gambling will help.
A court ruling earlier this year suggests they cannot. A federal court in Philadelphia issued a ruling in June that protected free speech -- even pornographic speech -- on the Internet. That case struck a blow for the First Amendment but threw sections of Congress' Communications Decency Act into question.
The ruling, appealed by the Justice Department, offers hope to Internet innovators such as Michaels that their gambling medium can remain relatively free of government regulation.
But that won't happen if officials such as Minnesota Attorney General Hubert H. Humphrey III have their way. Humphrey last year sued Granite Gate Resorts Inc. of Las Vegas after it promoted itself on the Web as a legal enterprise that was "coming soon."
Casino gambling, with some exceptions, is illegal in Minnesota, Humphrey contended, and it is a federal crime to transmit any gambling data through interstate communications wires. But it's not just Internet gamblers who worry Humphrey.
"Anyone with a computer and telephone can start soliciting on the Internet," he said in court documents, arguing that his state's consumers must be protected from the unscrupulous.
If somebody's dumb enough to gamble without looking for some protections from fraud (or, in any event, to gamble on pure chance), they don't deserve protection. If someone wants to rant and rave about the poor problem gamblers, I'd point out A: alcoholics and Prohibition; and B: I'd prefer people getting an adrenalin high from gambling to their getting it out on the highways.
Granite Gate contends that the state of Minnesota lacks jurisdiction to regulate its commercial transactions.
The Justice Department has been silent on the issue over the last year, during which more than 200 gambling-related home pages have opened on the Web. Most offer only advice or hints of real gambling to come, and several offer games "for amusement only."
The government acknowledges that Internet technology has emerged too rapidly and -- for those based offshore -- well beyond the reach of existing laws.
"There is nothing we can do about people that operate gambling businesses outside of the United States," said John Russell, a Justice Department spokesman.
Chuckle...
Michaels quotes Russell to that very effect in World Wide Web Casinos' promotional material, which also solicits investors in the company.
Peter Demos, the casino's president, said the company is taking a hard stand on the legality question.
"At this point we are considering the United States to be a legal jurisdiction to book bets, and we will take bets from the United States until some attorney general or somebody tells us that it is their position that it is illegal," Demos said. "Until laws are passed to make it illegal, it is in fact legal."
Many of the World Wide Web Casinos' 80 employees are at its Santa Ana, Calif., offices, where most of the computer graphics work and other nongambling functions take place.
That's probably not a good idea.
The company also runs the St. James Casino Club in Antigua, where the gambling side of the Internet casino will be based.
[...]
Winners will be paid with electronic credits through a company-issued Visa debit card that is accepted worldwide, he said.
One wonders how much tracking there will be of usage of that card?
Michaels' company also is establishing a self-policing industry group that will set standards for Internet gambling.
[...]
At the Las Vegas convention, Cyberspace President Ronald A. Angiers also announced the establishment of his firm's Internet Gaming Board, which aims to certify various gambling operations as both honest and solvent to protect the fledgling industry's integrity and to mediate disputes.
"There's great potential for corruption and unfair gaming practices," he said.
Copyright © 1996 Nando.net