Online gamblers play high stakes for US market

The online gambling industry converges on Washington today to discuss its future in the face of obstructive legislation. The three-day conference aims to ensure that online gambling operations are 100 per cent legal.

The conference coincides with the US Senate's hearing of the Kyl Bill, which is proposing stringent penalties against online gambling. Most European countries share the same view, although the Austrian, German and UK governments have allowed licenses for online gambling under particular circumstances.

At the summit, the Global Advertising Lawyers Association will present a survey that identifies areas of greatest international risk to gaming operators and outlines how those risks can be minimised. Delegates will also hear a series of legal case studies from around the world, which explain clearly where the legal loopholes lie.

Mark Blandford, MD and principal owner of NetBet, which runs www.sportingbet.com from the Channel Islands, said the conference was part of a political movement to legalise gambling in the US.

"Most US gambling sites are hosted in the Caribbean or Central America," he told Silicon.com." But even if they don't manage to change the laws, the online gambling market is going to carry on expanding faster than the rate of Internet penetration," he said.

Research house, DataMonitor predicted earlier this year that the market for online gambling would reach $10bn by the end of 2001.

But Paul Bellinger, director of GamCare, a UK-based welfare service for gamblers, said the summit had a long way to go. "They may have temporary success in finding loopholes in the law but countries can easily pass legislation to fill the gaps," he said.

Bellinger added that online gambling fulfilled all the criteria of hard gambling: rapid play, interactivity, the option of low stakes and the opportunity to chase your losses in a single session.

But despite this, Bellinger did not think that online gambling would become as addictive as real-world gambling. "Problem gamblers like to get out of the house to be entertained," he said. "And besides, if they ran into difficulties, their credit cards would be frozen and they would have to sell their computers to raise money."

'No Boundaries: Global Internet Gambling at the Millennium' will be held at JW Marriott Hotel in Washington DC from 29 November to 1 December.