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To: Steve Smith who wrote (12575)	12/2/1999 11:49:00 PM
From: Dale Baker	Respond to of 118717

My pick for you in return is CRY.TO or CYPLF: Tuesday, November 30, 1999 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Internet casinos get pass An online gambler has her debt forgiven, but an expert predicts the deal won't harm 'virtual' gaming. By John G. Edwards Review-Journal An Internet gambling suit settlement in California poses no real threat to the burgeoning online casino industry, a legal expert says. Cynthia Haines ran up $115,000 in credit card debts playing in so-called "virtual casinos" on the Internet, but creditors not only agreed to drop claims, but a gambling software company paid her $225,000 lawyer's bill. Her attorney claimed that she wasn't responsible for the gambling debt under an English common law doctrine dating back to Queen Ann. The settlement was reached a month ago and thus didn't result in any precedent-setting ruling by the Superior Court in San Rafael, Calif. Anthony Cabot, an Internet gaming legal expert with Lionel Sawyer & Collins in Las Vegas and editor of the book Internet Gambling Report III, believes the case will have a limited effect on Internet gambling. "It could have been more interesting if the court had to enter a decision," rather than just approve a settlement, he said. Cabot, however, believes credit card companies already have indicated to Internet gambling companies that they won't collect disputed charges for gambling. "'If there is any dispute with the player, we're just going to charge back your account," credit card issuers will say. "That probably is what happened in the majority of the cases already," Cabot said. "There's no question that (Internet gamblers) could probably walk away (from their debts)," he explained. "Everybody is going to understand that charge backs are a cost of doing business in that industry." The development and acceptance of electronic cash systems, however, probably will eliminate the problem of uncollectible debts for Internet casinos, he said. With e-cash, payments will be irrevocable. Nor will the Haines case have any significant impact on Nevada casinos. Nevada gaming operations can file suit against delinquent borrowers for gambling debts in the state. Then, the casinos can seek to enforce the Nevada judgment in any other state of the United States, he said. The banking industry is taking a low profile on the Haines case. Spokesmen for American Bankers Association, Citibank, Wells Fargo Bank and MasterCard International declined to comment or didn't return calls for comment on the Haines case. However, MasterCard issued a press release in July adopting new rules for MasterCard transactions with Internet casino merchants in the wake of the Haines settlement. One rule requires Internet casinos to post a notice that Internet gambling may be illegal in some areas. Another states that Internet casinos must require players identify there state or foreign country. And a third rule specificies that Internet gambling transactions must be coded to indicate they are gambling transactions. MasterCard said it was "pleased" Haines had agreed to settle her lawsuit in California.

To: Steve Smith who wrote (12575)	12/3/1999 12:27:00 AM
From: Richard Tsang	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 118717

Thanks, Steve. I will await the surprise to come, hopefully before X'mas <g>. I visited BITS homepage and took a tour. Very impressive demo on their Pageflex product. Found this explanation to "XML" from cNet "XML is the Extensible Markup Language, a system for defining specialized markup languages that are used to transmit formatted data. XML is conceptually related to HTML, but XML is not itself a markup language. Rather it's a metalanguage, a language used to create other specialized languages." Though I still do not quite understand all that, it seems a very powerful tool in web communications platform development. Read some interesting postings from the Yahoo site as well. I got a sense that there is mystery in this one, and hope Mystery = Magic. Rich