What's Cool

Greetings from Gamesville

Ever get a little bored playing the traditional casino games over and over again? Looking for something a little different? Well, if you're an online gamer, there's a site you've got to check out. It's called Gamesville (www.gamesville.com). All the games are free at Gamesville and after you join (takes about three minutes), you'll be able to enjoy such games as "The Bingo Zone," "Pop Quiz Rock 'n Roll Trivia," "Acey Deucy," and several others. Expected to be up-and-running soon are card games "Joker's Wild" and "Lucky 21."

Gamesville offers prizes to their game winners, and when we visited in early December, the site claimed to have awarded $346,797 to some of their 1,094,888 players.

There's green in them there trees

Perhaps a little more bizarre than cool, this site is interesting to say the least. The site is called TreeLoot (www.treeloot.com), and it works like this: Everyday, visitors can log onto the site and load a web page with a large tree graphic that has dollar bills on it instead of leaves. Hidden amongst the hundreds of bills on the tree are bills which represent $20, $100, $250 and $1000 prizes. There's no strategy involved—just click on a bill and see if you've won. If you don't, the site allows users to try as many times as they like.

The site generates revenue through advertising and there are no costs or obligations to the player. The contest is run everyday and the site claims to award $1370 a day in prizes. For a complete list of rules, visit the site. Here's hoping you "leave" a winner.

Cyber News

Gambling commission hears Net gaming testimony

The Internet gaming subcommittee of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission met in early December in Washington to hear testimony about online wagering from a variety of sources. From all indications, the subcommittee is no closer to resolving the commission's stance on Internet gaming than it was before the hearings began.

"At this moment," said gambling commission member and former California lieutenant governor Leo McCarthy, "we are far from being able to make any determination. This is so open, nobody knows what shape it is going to take."

Several witnesses testified that it is not possible to ban Internet gaming, so the next best thing would be regulation.

"Can you regulate the Internet?" commissioner Bill Bible asked. "I think that is a question that is still open."

But Alan Kesner, assistant attorney general for Wisconsin, believes poor regulation would give governments a false sense of security.

"Poor regulation is much worse than a marginally effective prohibition," he told the subcommittee.

Some Internet casino owners point to the efforts they make to police themselves, particularly the formation of the Interactive Gaming Council, a trade organization that sets certain standards for operation.

"The genie is out of the bottle," says Arthur Rosenberg, COO of Venture Tech Inc., a Virginia-based company that runs international on-line gaming operations. "On-line gambling is here to stay in one way or another."

Rosenberg denied that most companies operating on-line gaming were corrupt or connected to organized crime.

"The vast majority of companies in the Internet gaming industry are comprised of legitimate businessman, entrepreneurs and corporate entities that are merely addressing a viable market demand and opportunity," he said.

Some group representatives pleaded for exemptions from a total net gambling ban. Marianne McGettigan, an attorney for the Major League Baseball Players Assn., urged the commissioners to exempt fantasy or rotisserie sports leagues.

Kesner complained that some of these leagues charge hundreds of dollars in entry fees that are returned as prizes upon the completion of play.

John Peebles, an attorney for Native American groups, said reservation games should be exempt, since they take place on sovereign lands. Kesner said both the game and the player must be located on reservations for the exemption to hold.

Another witness testified that games of skill should be permitted on the net, such as electronic golf or billiards. McCarthy said to make more than a few exceptions would defeat the overall purpose of a ban.

"The whole Internet gambling universe is difficult enough to regulate," he said. "If you allow 25 exceptions, each of which may have decent arguments, what do you end up with at the end of the day?"

Bible says the lack of geographic definition of the Internet makes regulation problematic.

"The thing about the Internet is that it recognizes no

jurisdictional boundaries," says Bible, the former head of the Nevada Gaming Control Board. "So jurisdictions, whether it be Nevada, or Utah or California, can't make a public policy choice as to what kind of gaming they want to be exposed to play in their state."

Other countries are watching to see how the United States deals with Internet gambling's complexities. Canada in particular is said to have more publicly-traded Internet gaming companies than any other nation.

"We're certainly monitoring the situation," says Ab Campion, a spokesman for the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario.

Some Canadian Net-bet companies make their 75 percent profits selling gambling software, and others create virtual casino Web sites for all comers. Those that run online casinos, however, generally do so offshore.

Gambling, Internet or not, is illegal in Canada unless it is run by a provincial government or certain charities. And authorities ponder whether a Canadian company running an offshore casino is nonetheless violating federal law.

To help find out, the government needs a test case, says Hal Pruden, legal counsel for the Canadian Department of Justice's criminal policy section: "When we see a prosecution, it will give us a far better idea of whether provisions as they stand cover this area. The ability to enforce the law certainly remains to be seen."

Both Pruden and Campion suggest some provincial governments are considering whether to prosecute.

Canada's Parliament killed Liberal Dennis Mills' bill to license and tax Internet gaming companies in 1997, largely over questions of federal-vs.-provincial control, the state-federal argument growing familiar in the United States. Mills is now trying for similar legislation covering only sports betting, and he believes in the kind of regulation many U.S. net gamers push.

"It's like cigarettes," Mills says. "Do you want to buy them from a smuggler, or do you want a system of regulation where there's some accountability and responsibility? There is no way to stop people from betting. If they don't do it here in Canada, then they will gamble somewhere else."

Australian authorities hope so. Early in 1999, the Victoria state government is expected to authorize licensing of Internet casinos, if an objection by Crown Casino doesn't bollix up the works. A recent Deutsche Bank report that estimates online gaming and related software revenues at $7.4 billion by 2004 says Australian outfits are in line for half of it.