Congress may be debating this month whether online gambling should be banned, but that hasn't stopped three well-funded US-based companies from announcing plans for Net casinos. Playstar, Gaming Lottery Corporation, and Virtual Gaming Technology have all launched or are preparing to launch beta versions of gaming Web sites on offshore servers.
"The fact that there may or may not be legislation concerning this in the United States really doesn't concern us," says Julius Patta, president of the Playstar casino, which goes into beta on Sunday. "We're financing the company out of the United States, but our operation base is outside the country."
In other words, US residents won't be able to play. Gaming Lottery Corporation, for example, is a Nasdaq-traded company valued at over US$70 million, and is headquartered in the US. But its casino operations will be run out of another "first-world" country, and won't accept bets from US residents, explains executive vice-president Larry Weltman. The companies would not reveal what countries they would be working from.
To block US users, GLC has developed programs that it claims can detect US-based DNS entries and deny them access. Playstar, however, is counting on user responsibility. In order to play, users will have to sign up for accounts, during which time they will be instructed not to sign up if gambling is illegal in their country.
"We're telling users that if it's illegal, not to do it," says Patta. And, if for some reason they do anyway? "We're not the ones breaking the law, the players are the ones breaking the law," he says.
