INTERESTING EXCERPT FROM MEETING OF TEXAS LOTTO.
Also the precedent that the U.S. Supreme Court cited last week (in ruling that ISP's aren't liable for e-mail content of their subscribers) is that phone companies have never been liable for crimes perpetrated over the phone lines. So how can ISP's be held responsible for offshore internet casinos?
<<CHAIR MIERS: Okay. Well, this has been helpful. Obviously, the steps ought to be considered to improve our sales to the extent we are able to do so within public policy limits. So if we will have those presented to us, I would believe the Commission would like to move with as much dispatch as possible to consider what our options are because I can't escape that as every day passes, you know, the people of the state are voting with their dollars. And it is a pretty convincing vote at this point.
MS. CLOUD: It is that. And, Commissioners, I have a -- Patsy and I are going to a world lottery conference, international conference talking about what happens to older lotteries and sales and Internet gaming and a lot of other topics that are high on the list of interest for us right now. And at that meeting I am meeting with the Big Game state directors. That meeting was supposed to have taken place before now, but Rebecca Paul's mother passed away and -- at the time that that last meeting was scheduled. So we were not able to have the meeting with them to get the numbers. We have to know what any of these games would change their matrix to if Texas came in. They are going to have to change their matrix.
CHAIR MIERS: I guess I have one additional concern and that is that we not miss the fact that you just mentioned, Linda, that there is an increased competition for these dollars. And whether it is Internet or casinos or they are close by, or whatever, we do see competition that was not there earlier. So we need to make sure that we are making changes responsive to real issues as opposed to factors that we can't address.
MS. CLOUD: Absolutely. And I can tell you it is very frightening to see that already we have 650 gaming sites on the Internet and we do have Texas players playing those games. We have international lotteries that are doing Internet gaming already. You have Texas players registered to play their games. We are going to lose our better players, our players that are higher up on the income bracket, or some of their discretionary dollars, to that type of gaming interest. The only hope that we have got is that the Federal Government will pass a law illegalizing Internet gaming, except for state's rights. Giving us the right to have gaming if we want it in our own state, but that is strictly up to our leaders to decide that. But we need that protection of our boundaries. >>
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