Such is the power of branding in cyberspace: Though I loathe Rogers--I've never forgiven him for the two hours I lost while sitting through his execrable 1982 movie, Six Pack--he was a devil I knew, as opposed to some faceless offshore operator to whom I'd otherwise be sending credit card information. Assuming his casino--technically headquartered in the wager-friendly Caribbean--ripped me off, I told myself, I could at least track The Gambler down and take it out of his ample hide.
As is typical with online operations, wagering at Kenny's place requires a free--though lengthy--download in order to play a variety of card games, slots, craps, and the like. I patiently monitored the process as my gambling jones grew stronger and my deadline crept nearer. After 40 minutes, the download was done, but my frustration with Kenny was far from over. When I went to install the program, there was a corrupted file, so I had to start all over. Finally, about an hour later, I was ready to register and buy some cyberchips via credit card. That turned out to be a nonstarter twice over. When I entered my actual U.S. address, I was told I couldn't gamble for "real money" and was kicked over to the electronic version of the kids' casino. Then, after I used a friend's address in a faraway country to get through the registration process, Kenny's e-cash setup wouldn't accept any of my credit cards--probably because they have U.S. billing addresses.
It was still early in the evening--around 8 p.m.--and I was still eager to rattle them bones, so I wandered over to www.wheretogamble.com and clicked on its "#1 Best Bet," a place called the Aloha Casino & Sportsbook (www.alohacasino.com), which promised a $25 bonus for opening an account and no need to download any software. Despite some misgivings--I couldn't find any mention of a physical location for the operation, only an 800 number and an e-mail address--I was ready to play. The casino accepted my credit card information quickly and automatically e-mailed me a valid user ID, and within minutes I was figuratively sitting in front of a pile of chips and mulling over what game to start with.
Our 5-year-old son tucked away for the night, my college-professor wife joined me as we sipped wine in our family room and took our chances at slot machines, video poker games, blackjack, craps, and baccarat--all running on the same laptop she's using to write a scholarly book about 17th-century female preachers. The mechanics were simple enough: Click on a game and wait a minute or so for a Java applet to load; the graphics looked like those for any standard video game.
To be sure, much of the appeal of real-world casinos--the jazzed-up lights, the tacky decor, the very specialness of the trip--is sorely lacking at home. Still, the essential appeal of gambling--that momentary thrill that comes while the wager is alive--is there in spades. And the convenience of it all makes up for most of the razzmatazz: Living outside Cincinnati, we're a good two hours from the nearest legal casinos, a group of gaudy river boats dotting the Indiana bank of the Ohio River.
The comfort level of home is unbeatable, too. As only an occasional gambler, I'm usually intimidated from playing relatively complicated games such as craps (where wrong moves can bring down the wrath of pit bosses and fellow gamblers alike) and from staying at blackjack tables as the minimum bets rise over the course of an evening. Such concerns are absent on the Web, where you can't screw up anyone else's action and where you always set the bet (as low as 25 cents a wager at the Aloha).
Curiously, both my wife and I had confidence that the games were not rigged--or at least not any more rigged than those in real-world casinos. Our intimation of fair play was doubtless helped along by the fact that we were up over $300 at one point (due mostly to a single slots payout). As our earnings started to dwindle, the missus paraphrased Kenny Rogers, of all people, who once famously sang that a good gambler "knows when to hold `em and knows when to fold `em." Up about $170, we decided to cash out. We put in a withdrawal request with the cybercashier and were informed via e-mail that a check for the proper amount would be processed in a few days. If and when that happens, it's likely we'll be saying hello to the Aloha from time to time.
Nick Gillespie is executive editor of REASON.
Shades of Gray
The legal status of Internet gambling is uncertain, but people keep
betting.
Despite the creeping approach of anti-cyber gambling legislation and judicial rulings, there remains a formidable appetite in the United States for Internet wagering. No comprehensive statistics are kept on the subject, but industry analysts agree that there are at least 300 gambling sites currently in existence, through which as much as $1 billion a year flows.
The legal status of these sites within the United States is uncertain. Some companies, particularly those that are publicly held, have chosen to play it safe: They don't allow U.S. citizens to bet money on their sites. The San Diego-based company Inland Entertainment, for example, is a vital consultant to four different casino gambling sites--including the popular www.kennyrogerscasino.com and www.goodluckclub.com--but none of them lets U.S. citizens play for money. They monitor U.S. citizen-ship by checking one's postal code against the billing address of the credit card used to open an account.
Another "legitimate" category of Internet gambling sites revolves around noncasino gambling. Probably the best-known company in this area is YouBet.com, which has offered Internet wagering on horse races since early this year. For residents of 40 states and the District of Columbia, this is a perfectly legal transaction. Like most Internet companies, YouBet.com is not profitable, and so its future is unclear. But the company is on a pace to surpass $2 million a year in revenue. (Interestingly, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and John Malone's TCI this summer launched a cable channel called Television Games Network that broadcasts horse racing live. Many media observers believe that the ultimate goal of this project is in-home interactive parimutuel betting.)
Other noncasino gambling Web sites include Bingohour.com, where users buy virtual bingo cards for $1 apiece. A bingo number is announced on the site every seven seconds, and the site claims that its jackpots regularly reach as high as $100,000. There have been no major legal challenges to the site yet, but Bingohour does claim that it "discourages players from playing bingo on the Internet in any country or state where it is illegal to participate in Internet gaming."
Other sites are located abroad but allow U.S. citizens to gamble. They offer a wide array of casino games, typically including slots, blackjack, roulette, craps, and video poker. Such sites have long operated on the premise that because their servers sit in countries where gambling is legal (usually the Caribbean, but also parts of Australia and Canada), it is legal for a U.S. residents to use them.
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