More info to swallow. dailymail.com
If you read this article, there are points of negativity which we should all be aware of, but notice the obvious positives of how fast the industry will grow, IMHO, once the WINR system is well known and widely used, to provide security and reliability of a return on winnings amongst its other attributes..
Internet gambling unregulated
Some lawmakers trying to dip into untested
waters
August 7, 1998
By BRET JESSEE
DAILY MAIL STAFF
It's a type of gambling so new and unusual that it is outlawed in Nevada and
virtually nowhere else.
Internet gambling breaks all the rules. It escapes state and, at least for the time
being, federal regulation. It is an overseas business, and because of the computer
network's reach, the digital casinos are open worldwide, 24 hours a day.
But the U.S. Senate has already passed the Kyl Bill, which would effectively make
it illegal to participate in Internet gambling. Unlike most anti-gambling laws, the Las
Vegas casinos are not complaining and the American Gaming Association is quietly
supporting a ban.
"You have this demand function out there of staggering proportions, and what the
Internet potentially brings is access," said Sebastian Sinclair, a gambling industry
consultant in New York who has followed Internet gambling since 1995.
"However, a major dampening factor is am I going to get paid if I win and is it safe
to conduct financial transactions online?"
Sinclair said Nevada casinos are quietly supporting a ban but they are also hedging
their bets by hiring software writers to prepare Internet casinos to compete with the
largely kitchen-table businesses already out there.
Sinclair said he estimates there are 140 gambling sites operating in a $300 million
industry. The better sites are pulling in between $10 million and $12 million a year.
Most sites are making less than $5 million, he said.
But that could change. The two impediments to Internet gambling are the
reluctance of people to make transactions online and the lack of faith people have
in the overseas operators to run a fair game.
If it were ever legalized in the United States -- something that appears unlikely --
the market would explode overnight because of latent demand for casino gaming,
Sinclair said. At just one location in Indiana, riverboat casinos opened and virtually
overnight created a $1 billion market, Sinclair said.
The Internet gambling market is nationwide.
What's available
The dozens of Internet casinos offer virtually all the gambling you can find in Las
Vegas. Black Jack is ubiquitous and craps, baccarat and slots are common. Some
sites offer dozens of games, others just a few.
All that's needed to play is Internet access and a credit card. Some sites take credit
card bets directly, others use electronic cash -- a debit card purchased with a credit
card.
Nearly all the sites also let you try the games for free.
The casino software usually imitates the felt gambling tables of Vegas. People are
rarely shown -- except for naked women on some sites -- but some show the dice
rolling and the stickman pulling the dice back to the shooter.
At the sports books, live feeds from horse races are sometimes offered.
So far, the majority of the games are played by one person only. Some sites are
working to allow multiple players on a single game. The play is fast -- much like
the video poker and slot machines found at West Virginia race tracks. The casinos,
most of which are located in the Caribbean islands, usually offer a maximum bet of
up to $500.
Problems
Valerie Lorenz, who runs a gambling addiction treatment center in Baltimore,
hopes the House votes with the Senate to outlaw the uncontrolled gambling. The
Senate voted 90-10 to pass the Kyl Bill, but the house has not yet voted.
Unlike other forms of gambling, there are no external controls for Internet players,
she said.
One of the patients in her inpatient facility maxed out 20 credit cards and would
spend as many as 40 hours straight in front of the computer, she said. What made
his addiction so insidious was his ability to hide it.
His wife knew he was an Internet addict, but had no idea he was gambling. He sat
at the computer for hours, but he was always at home and never had to make
excuses to go out to gamble, she said.
Only when he began missing work and failed to intercept some of the late notices
in the mail did his wife find out.
"Even with poker machines at some point they have to reach a point where they
have to stop, and that's when the bar closes," Lorenz said. "We know Internet
gamblers that have been awake 48 hours straight, which means, among other
things, that their gambling strategy has been totally compromised."
Jim P. with Gamblers Anonymous in West Virginia said he has only seen one
person come in addicted to Internet gambling.
But he noted that back in 1983 Lorenz predicted that video poker would become
an addiction problem, and today video gambling accounts for more than half of the
gamblers he sees.
Today, Lorenz is predicting that if something is not done, Internet gambling could
be the next epidemic.
"Outside that one person everything is pretty new on that," Jim P. said. "Eventually
the way computers are going that's probably going to take over later down the
road."
In West Virginia
Delegate Rick Staton, D-Wyoming, wants Internet gambling banned, but it's not
because he takes a hard line against gambling. Staton supports making "gray
machines" -- video poker machines in bars across the state that pay off illegally --
legal.
Staton wants the tax revenue.
His reason for opposing Internet gambling is because the state cannot regulate it or
derive revenue from it. Internet gambling could even become a threat to the
lottery's income -- especially the legal video poker machines at race tracks.
"I really think it should be prohibited by federal law. Gaming is really the state's
province to regulate, and I don't think they should use the Internet to get around
that," Staton said.
John Melton, the Lottery Commission's in-house attorney, has been trying to
follow the largely mysterious online gambling industry. Because the Internet has
been so difficult to police, Melton worries about whether the Kyl Bill or other
legislation can effectively ban the practice.
"The Kyl Bill could pass and if the Kyl Bill becomes law and Internet gambling is
only allowed in certain circumstances, there's really no effective way to police
that," Melton said.
Melton said Internet gambling has had no discernible effect on the Lottery
Commission's growing revenues, but whether it will become competition is
anyone's guess, he said.
Sinclair is more optimistic about Congress being able to prohibit online gambling if
it chooses. He said the ingenious approach the Kyl Bill takes is that it does not
require Internet service providers to police the vast Internet.
Service providers such as America Online or CityNet merely have to block access
to a gambling site after it is brought to their attention, Sinclair said. If the Kyl Bill
passes the House, Sinclair said anti-gambling activists will keep a vigil on the
Internet watching for sites.
"The Internet is too large and too vast for anyone to be sort of an editor to what's
out there but t |
