Gambling News by House of Odds

This week, Youth Eastside Services launched the first state-funded program
to help teens battle gambling addiction. The program is funded by a new tax
approved last year by the Legislature to pay for prevention and treatment of
problem gamblers. The tax is paid by the Washington Lottery, Washington
Horseracing Commission and groups with recreational gaming licenses. So far,
much of the state's information about teen gambling addiction is anecdotal,
said Linda Graves, problem gambling program manager for the state's Division
of Alcohol and Substance Abuse. The division operates the Washington State
Problem Gambling Program. The most recent study in 1999 found that 1 percent
of students ages 12-17 were problem gamblers and that an additional 0.7
percent were at risk to become gamblers, Graves said. The numbers have
likely risen over the years, given the prevalence of online gambling and the
popularity of TV shows such as "Celebrity Poker Showdown," Graves said. One
of the biggest problems with identifying teenage gambling addicts is that
many parents don't consider gambling a true addiction, Graves said.

"Parents let their kids play Texas Hold'em as a recreational activity,"
Graves said. "For most kids, they aren't going to get into trouble. But for
some, it could be a trigger or a gateway activity for a worse problem later
on. Why let your kids engage in a risky behavior?"

Detecting problem gambling in young people is also a challenge.

There's no "pee test" for gambling as there is for drug use, noted Chris
Sogn prevention and intervention specialist at Youth Eastside Services
(YES).

The YES program will counsel teens and parents on gambling addiction,
working with the youth to cope with cravings and depression, and teaching
parents how to take control of their teen's money.

Gambling addiction is similar to drug and alcohol addiction in many ways,
with teens struggling to hide it from parents, and often using it as a way
to escape or to get a rush, Sogn said.

"Kids who are competitive may think, 'I can make this work and it's a way I
can make money without working at McDonald's,' " she said.

Utah consumer protection officials have cited four companies for sending
e-mail solicitations to minors for Web sites promoting gambling, alcohol and
pornography. It was the second time this year state investigators issued
citations under the state's controversial Child Protection Registry law,
which requires adult-oriented Web sites and e-mailers to screen out
addresses on the list from their distribution databases. Named in the
citations were DOS Media Now, an Encinitas, Calif., online gambling site
fined $5,000; Golden Arch Casinos, of Overland Park, Kan., fined $2,500;
Smoothbeer.com, a United Kingdom beer company fined $2,500; and
SoftestGirls.com, a Singapore company fined $20,000 for sending pornographic
e-mails to several minors. In January, the state issued its first, $2,500
citation under the statute to a Canadian online porn site for allegedly
sending a sexually explicit e-mail to registered minor's address. "This has
become a very serious problem," said Francine Giani, Commerce Department
executive director. "It's a big issue for us, but parents can play an
important role in this process, too, by knowing and being aware of what
their children are doing on the Internet." Utah's Child Protection Registry
took effect in mid-2005. While its primary selling point with legislators
was to combat pornography, it also is designed to protect registered minors
from content promoting alcohol, tobacco, gambling, firearms and drugs.
Both Utah and Michigan, which has a similar registry, link mass e- mailers
to Park City-based Unspam Technologies. The company charges a half-cent for
each address that is removed. The registry is free for schools, parents and
other guardians of minors to use. Commercial e-mailers argue that the
registry's time and cost are unfairly burdensome. The Free Speech
Coalition - a porn trade organization - is challenging the constitutionality
of the Utah law in U.S. District Court. Judge Dale Kimball has set a Nov. 9
hearing on the coalition's motion for an injunction, and the state's request
to dismiss the coalition's lawsuit. Jerome Mooney, a Salt Lake City attorney
representing the coalition, said Thursday he was surprised by the citations
when the statute itself is at issue.

PARTYGAMING experienced a late flurry of buying on an apparent procedural
setback in Congress over America's anti-gambling legislation.
Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader, has been seeking to attach the
anti-gambling measure to one of two "must-pass" Bills before Congress shuts
down this weekend ahead of November's mid-term elections. But with
legislators keen not to hold up the progress of the politically sensitive
Homeland Security Bill, it was set to be pushed through yesterday without
the gambling curbs attached. Separately, there was no sign that efforts to
attach the anti-gambling measure to the Defence Bill - which itself appears
unlikely to get through Congress before tomorrow's deadline - were making
any progress. Followers of the online gambing sector suggested that the
chances of the controversial legislation being passed this session had
virtually evaporated. Further, although it may get a fresh airing in the
so-called "lame duck" session - the period in which Congress still meets
after elections have been held, but before the newly elected Congress has
convened - there is also now the possibility that the legislative process
will have to be restarted next year, effectively meaning a six- month delay.

With short-term investors taking heart from the impasse on Capitol Hill,
PartyGaming rose 4¼p at 105¾p. The FTSE 100 gained 41.2 to5,971.3, with
natural resources stocks again making much of the running. Aside from
further gains in metals prices, miners were helped by a heavyweight circular
from ABN Amro, which believes that this month's sell-off in the sector
offers a good buying opportunity. The Dutch broker says valuations appear
low relative to what is priced into other cyclical stocks.

Brambles jumped 20p to 488p as takeover talk refused to fade. One theory was
that the pallet maker could be a target for General Electric at around 600p
per share. A competing theory out of Australia overnight was that a private
equity house is mulling a move at A$15 (598p).

A more pedestrian explanation is that the gains owe more to arbitrage
activity ahead of Brambles' move of its primary listing to Australia in
December. Under that scenario, proprietary traders who have been trying to
profit from a valuation disparity between the two listings have been
recently covering their short positions in the Australian stock, thereby
triggering a squeeze.

Elsewere, bid rumours continued to follow Hanson, up 25p at 746p, which
yesterday hosted an analysts' visit to its operations bordering the Thames
Estuary. Speculative investors also continued to pursue Prudential, which
rose 6½p at 643½p, on persistently strong talk of an imminent 750p a share
offer.

Trainer Greg Martin was sentenced to two years probation and six months home
confinement on Thursday for his involvement in an alleged illegal gambling
ring that supposedly brokered more than $200-million in bets over a two-year
period. Martin was fined $2,000 and a $100 special assessment by Judge
Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum in United States District Court for the Southern
District of New York. Martin pleaded guilty in the case and faced up to
five years and prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Martin admitted in March
to administering A One Rocket a milkshake before the opening race at
Aqueduct on December 18, 2003, a race the gelding won by ten lengths. Martin
said he informed David "Pebbles" Applebaum of the milkshaking and understood
that Applebaum would pass that information along to other bettors in the
alleged gambling ring. In January 2005, federal prosecutors indicted 17
individuals on 88 counts for participating in the illegal gambling business.
One person indicted in the case has since died.

According to a spokesperson for the United States Attorney's office, several
others indicted in the case have received sentences in recent months that
are similar to what Martin was assessed.

On March 29, Jeffrey Gruber received three years probation, six months home
confinement, a $2,000 fine, and $100 special assessment.

Jonathan Broome received one year probation, six months home confinement,
and a $100 special assessment.

On July 18, Paul Cuzzo received five years probation, six months home
confinement, and a $100 special assessment.

On July 26, Richard Hart received two years probation, six months home
confinement, and a $100 special assessment.

On September 20, Norman Ostrov was sentenced to time served and received a
$100 special assessment.

LOUISIANA governor Kathleen Blanco has voiced support for the state's
crackdown on online gambling and renewed an extradition request for Peter
Dicks, former chairman of Sportingbet. The governor's intervention came as
Mr Dicks prepared to attend a court hearing in New York yesterday to learn
whether he will be sent to Louisiana to face illegal gambling charges.
Lawyers for Mr Dicks, who was arrested in New York three weeks ago on a
Louisiana warrant, had hoped to halt the extradition process before the
hearing. But a spokesman for Ms Blanco said she was still pushing for his
extradition as part of efforts to enforce the state's law against online
gambling. "If we do not enforce this law, online gambling would be
completely unregulated and that would clearly be an expansion of gambling,
which is unacceptable," she told the FT. Barry Slotnick, lead defence
lawyer, acknowledged that Louisiana had "dug in" over recent days, raising
the prospect of a courtroom battle over Mr Dicks's fate. "They are not
backing off," he said in an interview. "We're preparing our argument to
rebut what Louisiana says." Thursday's hearing in New York comes amid
increasing alarm among online bookmakers about the legal threat posed to the
industry by US anti-gambling laws.

William Hill, the British bookmaker, said on Wednesday it would no longer
accept casino and poker business from clients with a US address or credit
card, pending clarification of US laws.

The company had already stopped accepting online sports bets from US
customers.

Congress is considering the introduction of tough new federal laws against
online gambling, in addition to existing state laws such as those used by
Louisiana, to arrest Mr Dicks.

Louisiana's Police Gaming Enforcement division told the FT this week that
arrest warrants had been issued for four Sportingbet representatives,
including Mr Dicks, after state police placed a bet with the company.

On Wednesday, Sportingbet, which is listed in Britain, said it had banned
board members from travelling to the US.

Mr Dicks may still be spared prosecution in Louisiana because of legal
questions over the legitimacy of the state's extradition request.

Defence lawyers have argued that he cannot be extradited to Louisiana under
New York law because he was not in either state at the time of the alleged
crime.

Mr Dicks was allowed to return to Britain on bail two weeks ago while the
case was reviewed but he was ordered to return for yesterday's hearing.

George Pataki, New York governor, has withdrawn a warrant needed for Mr
Dicks's extradition because of doubts about the case.

A senior Finance Ministry official told gambling operators to prepare for
hard times, while scantily clad girls danced outside the conference hall at
Moscow's annual international gaming expo Thursday. Dancers dressed as
cowgirls moved to the din of slot machines at Crocus Expo, where hundreds of
casino bosses, slots operators and manufacturers of gambling equipment
gathered in the hope of understanding what pending legislation on gambling
means for their booming businesses. "Prepare for the worst and hope for the
best," Alexei Savatyugin, chief of the Finance Ministry's financial policy
department, told the conference. The State Duma is expected to vote on the
crucial second reading of the legislation as early as next week and no later
than November, Savatyugin said. The bill represents the Duma's first serious
attempt to impose strict regulations on the gambling industry, worth nearly
$6 billion last year. The Finance Ministry's Federal Tax Service has been in
charge of handing out gambling licenses since last November, but regional
authorities currently govern all other industry matters. "The stricter the
legislation, the more chances it will have to be approved by a greater
number of politicians," Igor Dines, Duma deputy with United Russia, told the
conference.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, a Virginia Republican,
raised a "strong objection" to attaching any unrelated legislation to a
pending defense bill, which has been viewed by supporters of the gambling
bill as a prime vehicle for it. "I have firmly opposed putting any
(unrelated) bills in the conference report," Warner wrote in a letter dated
Monday to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican. Warner
did not cite the Internet gambling bill specifically, but he said other
senators have sought to tack at least nine unrelated items to the defense
bill. A Republican aide said that Frist has not given up on passing the
Internet gambling bill before lawmakers recess at the end of this week to
campaign for the Nov. 7 elections. Frist and other proponents are looking at
other possible vehicles, such as a pending measure to bolster port security
against potential terrorist attacks, aides said. "He wants to get it done,"
one aide said. "We are still working things out. Everyone is still talking."
A senior Democratic aide said, "I wouldn't pronounce it dead yet."

Efforts to win support for a Internet version of the House bill in the
Senate have been opposed by lobbyists representing casino owners and horse-
and dog-racing interests.

The bill would prohibit most forms of Internet gambling and make it illegal
for banks and credit card companies to make payments to gambling sites.

Investors in British-based gaming companies such as BetOnSports, Partygaming
and 888 Holdings are closely watching the U.S. legislation.

Democrats have criticized the Republican-backed measure as an election-year
appeal to the party's conservative base, particularly the religious right.

Frist is a potential 2008 presidential candidate. He recently appeared at a
congressional field hearing in Iowa--the state that holds the first
presidential nominating contest in 2008--to hear concerns about Internet
gambling.

Supporters of a crackdown on Internet gambling say legislation is needed to
clarify that a 1961 federal law banning interstate telephone betting also
covers an array of online gambling.

Italy has had an interesting relationship with online gaming. In February,
the country attempted to ban all IP addresses of online gaming sites, and
then a few days later reportedly tried to set up an 'exclusive' relationship
with an online poker room, allegedly for a slice of the pie. Now, Italy has
taken the step that the U.K., and many other countries have taken, and is
moving toward regulation of the industry. As of January 1, 2007, it will be
legal for Italian citizens to gamble online. The new law also clears the way
for things like public sports betting and bingo parlors. This piece of
legislation de-regulates all 'ability based and fixed betting activities',
which poker clearly falls under. The Italian plan apparently mirrors that
of the plan in the U.K. with respect to how the entities that do business in
Italy are regulated. One thing of note: If a company does business with
Italian customers, the government will stand to make a 3% tax on any gaming
based revenues acquired by the company. This seems to be the direction many
countries around the world are heading, with the model in the U.K. seeming
to be stable, and sustainable. This new law in Italy has led many to
speculation that the online gaming industry will launch an all out blitz
trying to grab market share in the newly opened market. How do you say 'Gold
Rush' in Italian? The billion dollar question in the online gaming industry
is: What will the U.S. do?

In recent days, it has become more and more clear that the U.S. Senate will
not be able to pass the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act in any form,
whether as a stand alone bill, or attached to other legislation before the
Senate takes its election recess starting tomorrow or Saturday. History has
shown us that post-election 'lame duck' sessions of congress are more
reticent to discuss any proposed legislation that has heated debate, or
especially complex issues attached to it.

Starting January 1st, the Italian people will be able to legally play poker
in front of their computer. We will continue to monitor how the other
countries around the world deal with this highly charged issue.

The jingle of slot machines from neighboring Pennsylvania could serve as a
wake-up call for West Virginia lawmakers to approve table gambling, Delegate
Gil White believes. White, R-Ohio, said without table gambling West Virginia
could lose up to $50 million in revenue the first year Pennsylvania comes
on-line with its slot machines. Pennsylvania officials on Wednesday approved
licenses for five racing facilities in the Keystone State - including The
Meadows in Washington County. The horse track will provide direct
competition with Wheeling Island Racetrack and Gaming Center for slots
customers. Wheeling Island could cut up to 350 jobs if West Virginia does
not approve table gambling at its racetracks, said Bob Marshall, the
facility's president and general manager. With table gambling, the track
could add up to 400 new jobs, he said. Marshall said 60 percent of Wheeling
Island's customers come from Pennsylvania. To combat the anticipated loss of
customers and revenue, Marshall said the state Legislature needs to act
during its next general session in January. "We've been talking about this
for a couple years and the reality is it's here," Marshall said, estimating
Pennsylvania's slots would be online in April. If approved by the
Legislature in January and then by Ohio County voters, Marshall estimated
people could be playing table games, such as blackjack, about this time next
year at Wheeling Island. Whether any of his 1,000 employees would be laid
off in the meantime, Marshall could not say.

He noted during the estimated nine-month transition period, many of his
current employees may receive training to become table game dealers.

"According to our polling, 61 percent of West Virginians would approve a
local option vote," Marshall said. "This is a great opportunity to add
jobs."

He noted Ohio residents are scheduled to vote upon allowing slot machines in
November. He expects Maryland to follow soon after. He said 30 percent of
Wheeling Island's patrons come from Ohio, while only 5 percent are West
Virginians.

The addition of table gambling in Pennsylvania and Ohio, he believes, may be
inevitable, but likely will not happen for "years down the road." When it
does, though, Marshall believes the competition between the racetracks will
be more even.

The challenge for Northern Panhandle lawmakers will be convincing their
colleagues in other counties to support the measure.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the day is here," White
said. "For at least two years, I and others have been saying it was just a
matter of time before Pennsylvania was up-and-running with its machines, and
we knew this would adversely affect West Virginia's annual budget.

"If we do nothing - and do not allow for table gambling at the racetracks -
the state's coffers could be affected by $50 million.

"With no hesitancy, we need to move ahead with an aggressive format to get
the table gaming legislation passed," he said. "We need to make certain our
colleagues understand that the day is here. What we have been predicting has
taken place."

Delegate Randy Swartz-miller, D-Hancock, said he believes Gov. Joe Manchin
will not place the table gambling issue on the call for a special session
before January.

"Before January, we will make sure our colleagues are updated and educated
about what is going on, and we will be that much farther ahead come
January," he said.

"There was a very good chance that table gambling legislation would pass in
this upcoming session anyway," said Delegate Joe DeLong, D-Hancock. "We
already had expected that Pennsylvania would go online soon, so this was no
surprise. We saw it coming.

"But the political landscape has started to turn. After this next election,
the votes will be there to support the issue."

DeLong said he senses public sentiment throughout West Virginia about table
gambling is changing, especially in the Eastern Panhandle.

He added the issue certainly won't be far from legislators' minds as they
assemble late this year for a special session on tax reform.

State Sen. Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, said video gambling is the second
largest tax revenue source for the state.

"If we see this revenue reduced by 25 to 30 percent, we will either have to
cut programs or find other sources of revenue," he said. "I prefer table
gambling because it is mostly out-of-state money being contributed to the
state's economy."

Hoosiers who sit at their computers gambling online may be subject to
greater restrictions in the near future. State Rep. Joe Micon, D-West
Lafayette, and Republican candidate Connie Basham both believe restrictions
on the practice are necessary. Micon commented on state law, stating
"Currently, participating (in online gambling) is not illegal." Indiana law
allows such participation but prohibits the operation of a server hosting
gambling within the state. To date, Washington is the only U.S. state that
prohibits gamers from logging on to poker, blackjack or other gambling
sites. Online gambling within the state is considered a Class C felony,
punishable with a $10,000 fine or five years in prison. " (But) most states
have chosen the route of not criminalizing (it,)" said Micon.

He said taxing winnings may be a possible route for increasing state
revenue, but was confident saying "I think what we will see, in the relative
future, is state regulation of (online) gaming in the state of Indiana."

Basham, the Republican candidate for the office, agrees and said that as
credit card debt for college students continues to be a problem, now is the
right time for regulation.

"Right now, we make it so easy for students to pile up debt," said Basham.
"To use gambling to continue the cycle of debt ... we need regulations in
place. I don't want to see gambling expanded."

She also commented there are already other significant gambling
opportunities in the state, hinting that online gambling is unnecessary.

"We want students to succeed. We don't want them to go on a course for
failure."

After a brief skirmish over new identification requirements for cross-border
travel, it appeared House GOP leaders have agreed to let the $34.8 billion
FY07 Homeland Security appropriations conference report come to the floor as
early as today, GOP aides said. House Speaker Hastert and Judiciary Chairman
Sensenbrenner, key architects of the 2004 intelligence overhaul law
stipulating the requirements, had pressured appropriators to drop language
delaying them by 17 months. But the delay had broad support among House and
Senate Republicans, and in the end leaders did not want to hold up the
politically sensitive bill, which includes $21.3 billion for border
protection efforts -- a 10 percent increase over the current fiscal year.
Appropriators Wednesday night were preparing to file the necessary paperwork
for leaders to bring up the bill under a "same-day rule" for floor
consideration in the House, possibly today. Senior appropriators on both
sides of the Capitol opposed opening the bill to further changes, arguing
they had struck a delicate balance and any changes would risk losing votes.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Specter and Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, both said
they would withdraw their votes if changes were made without their consent.
"The conference report is over. It's final," said House Homeland Security
Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky. Added Senate
Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Judd Gregg, R-N.H.:
"This bill is closed. We're not reopening it."

Complicating matters further had been a House-Senate dispute over additional
immigration-related legislation sought by Hastert, and aides said they were
trying to resolve his concerns by either including those measures in the
defense authorization bill or exploring the possibility of moving them
during the lame-duck session.

Defense authorization

The prospects for passing the FY07 defense authorization bill before
lawmakers flee Washington this weekend dimmed Wednesday as House Speaker
Hastert and Senate Armed Services Chairman Warner remained deadlocked over
whether unrelated legislation should be attached to the bill.

Lawmakers leaving the meeting said Hastert and Warner still had not reached
an agreement over whether to attach federal court security legislation and a
controversial Republican measure aimed at detaining and deporting immigrant
gang members and speeding the removal of immigrant criminals.

Other House and Senate staffers indicated that there was little room for a
compromise, signaling that the bill would not move until one side backs
down. "Somebody needs to blink," an aide said. Hastert has said Senate
Majority Leader Frist assured him the Senate would consider the
court-security and immigrant gang legislation before the six-week recess for
the elections.

With time running out before the planned recess, the defense authorization
bill was one of only a few options to serve as a vehicle for those bills.

But even as the Hastert-Warner standoff continued, House and Senate
conferees appeared to have resolved nearly all differences in their
competing versions of the defense authorization measure.

In the last several days, Warner and Hunter have agreed to compromise
language on a divisive House provision that would have allowed military
chaplains to pray in the name of Jesus Christ.

Separately, no movement was apparent Wednesday in the effort to add language
to the defense authorization bill to restrict Internet gambling.

Summary: Big news here is that Hastert (and by extention Frist) has
apparently given up on trying to attach his add-ons to the Homeland Security
bill. It is probably in gear to move through both chambers by Saturday.
Meanwhile, on the DoD Authorization side, Warner is holding firm on the
add-ons and it is unlikely to see debate before the lame duck session.

I think there is about a 10% chance of iGaming legislation passing before
the recess and I'll stick to that assessment just to err on the conservative
side. If I were trying to put a negative spin on this, I'd say that to some
extent we'd rather have a complete meltdown than the gears moving at all,
even if the gears seem to be moving in our direction. But self-evidently
there is mostly good news.

There is apparently some big luncheon/cheerleading session between Bush and
GOP leaders scheduled for tomorrow. Just looking at the calendar, that may
be the best and last chance for any sort of major shift in congressional
strategy.

Catholic schools in Calgary have agreed to stop fundraising through casinos
and bingos, but it's "business as usual" until they figure out how to make
up the $2-million shortfall, says the chairwoman of the school district's
trustees. The issue arose when Calgary Bishop Fred Henry threatened to strip
the schools of their Catholic designation if they continued to raise money
through gambling. "We have to respect what our bishop has requested us to
do," Cathie Williams said yesterday, adding some parents are concerned about
the decision. "Some of the programs that are in place right now have been
around for many, many years and the concern is that without this additional
funding, those programs will be lost."

British bookmaker William Hill said today it had stopped taking casino and
poker bets from US customers amid confusion over internet gambling laws
there. Online sports betting contravenes the 1961 Wire Act in America, which
bans the placing of bets on sporting events via the telephone line in the
states. William Hill already has measures in place to prevent American
gamblers logging onto its website and placing bets on sports events. But the
firm said it was also pulling out of casino and poker until there was a
better understanding over how the law will affect its business. William Hill
said in a statement it would not accept casino or poker business from
customers with a US address or US-issued credit card. Chief executive David
Harding said: "The advice we have had is that online gambling is not illegal
under the Wire Act, but there are clearly attempts within the US to make it
illegal. "Given the debate in the Senate about changes to internet gambling,
we just decided this was the most prudent course of action. "We are small in
the US and have never marketed ourselves in the states. It is just an outlet
for US customers if they come across us on the internet."

Senator Frist failed again to attach an Internet gambling bill to a defense
bill today. However, Republicans are looking for other avenues to ban
online gambling before Congress adjourns for the November 7 elections. An
aide told Reuters today, "Frist wants to get it done...We are still working
things out. Everyone is still talking." A senior Democratic aide was quoted
by cnetnews.com as saying, "I wouldn't pronounce it dead yet." The proposed
bill would make most forms of online gambling illegal and prohibit banks and
credit card companies to provide funds to gambling sites. Backers of the
Internet gambling bill say that legislation is badly needed to emphasize
that the 1961 federal law banning telephone betting is also a measure
against a variety of online gambling such as horse and dog-racing interests.
Aides say that Frist along with other supporters are planning to tag it to
other provisions such as tightening port security against threats of
terrorism. Given the fact that time is running out, we can only hope that
level heads prevailin the Senate. This isn't really about right or wrong,
or helping any Americans out.

Fiscal protectionism masked by political manoeuvring and adroit public
relations the real agenda Veteran industry professional and soon to stand
down Sportingbet CEO Nigel Payne spoke out against online gambling bans in
an interview with The Times of London this week. Long an articulate
proponent of government regulated and taxed online gambling, Payne explained
how not so hidden agenda have played an important role in recent arrests of
online gambling executives, including that of Sportingbet colleague Peter
Dicks. "The key to a proper understanding of what is happening in the
internet gambling industry is to look at the agenda of some of those who
seek to criticise it," Payne argued in the Times interview. "I believe that
the real picture that emerges is one of fiscal protectionism that is being
masked by political manoeuvring and adroit public relations. Payne says that
a good example of banning rationalisation is the often-used and emotive
issue of under-age gambling. "We are told that the industry is a social
pariah, a danger to children. Although internet gambling may provide the
capability for minors to participate in unsupervised gambling, the truth is
that the industry has long been able to demonstrate that it has the
technology to mitigate such risks.

"The US House of Representatives recently passed a Bill - H.R.4411 - to "ban
internet gambling". A central pillar of the Bill was that the industry is "a
risk to the children of America". What struck me as odd was that the House
never asked whether technology existed to mitigate the concerns.

"Moreover, the Bill lists a number of internet gambling activities,
including horse racing and fantasy leagues, that would be exempt from any
ban. No explanation is offered about why such activities should be exempted,
nor why children might be at risk from, say, a bet on a hand of poker but
not from a bet on a horse race."

Louisiana police have warned all online gambling companies to stop
accepting bets in the state or risk having their executives and directors
arrested if they visit the US, the Financial Times reported, citing an
interview with Captain Joe Lentini, head of the casino section of
Louisiana's Police Gaming Enforcement division. The FT quotes Lentini, the
police official responsible for the arrest of Peter Dicks, ex-chairman of
Sportingbet PLC, on a Louisiana warrant in New York three weeks ago, as
saying the state is pressing ahead with its clampdown, in spite of what
appears to be a rethink about the case in other jurisdictions. Lentini said
the state has issued four arrest warrants for individuals associated with
Sportingbet, including Dicks. He would not name the other three but told the
FT it 'was reasonable to assume they were executives or directors'. The FT
says Lentini indicated that other online gambling companies were also under
investigation and their executives and directors at risk of arrest. The
report says it's understood that Louisiana has sealed warrants against more
than 50 people working or connected to at least a dozen online gambling or
related companies.

Wisconsin's Indian tribes have spent millions of dollars in the past decade
to influence politics. A review of state and federal donations by the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shows the tribes and gambling interests committed
about $5.5 million in the past 10 years to political spending. That includes
campaign contributions and advertising campaigns. The review showed
Democrats are the biggest beneficiaries of the spending, with Gov. Jim Doyle
getting the most -- about $926,000. That includes big donations from tribes
funneled through Democratic Party committees in Washington. U.S. Rep. Mark
Green, the Republican candidate for governor, got virtually nothing from
tribes. Neither did Scott Mccallum, the Republican governor who lost to
Doyle in 2002.

A broad coalition of Christian clergy said Wednesday they will push
parishioners to oppose a proposal to expand gambling in Ohio by displaying
yard signs, campaigning door-to-door and preaching against the measure from
their pulpits. The announcement at a Statehouse news conference marked a
moment of rare cooperation on a political issue between Ohio's mainstream
and conservative religious communities, which have differed in their
approaches in the divisive governor's race between Democrat Ted Strickland
and Republican Ken Blackwell. But both groups sent powerful religious
leaders - United Methodist Bishop Bruce Ough and evangelical pastor Rod
Parsley of World Harvest Church - to express their unity against the ballot
initiative, called Learn and Earn by backers.
Ough, who represents the Methodist church's West Ohio Conference, equated
the supporters' strategy of highlighting the college scholarships provided
by the proposal, rather than the gambling it would allow, to a game of hide
and seek. "What supporters of slot machines really want is a full-blown
gambling industry in Ohio," he said. "This ballot issue is the first step in
their agenda." Parsley said Ohioans deserve something better than a
snake-oil sales pitch from Learn and Earn.
"It's a risky scheme to enrich a few at the expense of the poor," he said.
The constitutional amendment, Issue 3 on the Nov. 7 ballot, would allow
seven horse racing tracks to operate 31,500 slot machines and give Cleveland
the option of setting up two freestanding sites downtown. Thirty percent of
the money raised would be earmarked for scholarships that students would
earn while in high school.

Learn and Earn spokeswoman Robin Hepler said supporters respect church
leaders' right to oppose the amendment, but believe they are spreading
inaccuracies.

"We understand their objections on the moral issue of gambling, but I would
disagree when they say this is not about education," Hepler said.

She said their opposition was expected.

The church leaders who gathered Wednesday said they plan to distribute
10,000 yard signs to be displayed in church lawns statewide, hand out voter
education pamphlets and hold informational forums on the topic.

Rebecca Tollefson, executive director of the Ohio Council of Churches, said
the proposal would create new gambling addicts in Ohio and would make a few
business owners rich at the expense of low-income people, who would be drawn
to the get-rich-quick promise of slot machines.

She accused its backers of being deceptive.

"Learn and Earn is about gambling, not education," Tollefson said. "And
gambling is bad for families."

Though organizers of Wednesday's event called on other faith leaders to join
their effort, they did not reach out to a recently formed coalition of
mainline and liberal religious leaders called We Believe, which has been
active in this year's election.

The Rev. Tim Ahrens of the First Congregational Church in Columbus and the
head of We Believe - which challenged the tax-exempt status of some
conservative religious churches, including Parsley's, and their support of
Blackwell for governor - said his group was not invited to take part in the
news conference.

We Believe has not taken a position on Issue 3, he said, but may do so. He
said most of the ministers in his group oppose the issue.

Fears that more senior executives working for online gambling firms could be
arrested were fuelled today following the resignation of a lawyer who served
under former US President George W. Bush from the roles of chairman and
chief executive of World Gaming. Almost all of the internet betting firm's
business comes from the US, and the resignation of James Grossman, along
with fellow non-executive director Clare Roberts, comes at a crucial time
for the industry reports the Financial Times. On Thursday, British
businessman Peter Dicks, former chairman of Sportingbet, is due to appear in
a New York court for a hearing to find whether he should be extradited to
Louisiana to face charges of "gambling by computer". The FT says several
online gambling companies have stressed to investors that their executives
have either been advised not to make trips to the US or had no plans to do
so. US senators are currently engaged in a fight to tighten the country's
laws against gambling. The arrest of Mr Dicks and the indictment issued by
the US justice department in July against another British firm, Betonsports,
has raised fears in the industry that it may be impossible to protect
executives from anti-gambling laws.

Software developer CryptoLogic Inc. is relocating its head office to a more
"friendly" environment in Ireland, highlighting a growing moral divide
between North America and Europe over Internet gambling. The Toronto-based
company, which makes software that Internet gambling sites run on, yesterday
said it will move its head office -- including top executives, human
resources, business development and investor relations -- to Dublin in
January. The company's chief executive, Lewis Rose, is not relocating for
"family reasons" and will step down once a replacement is found. Chief
information officer Stephen Taylor is moving . The Dublin office will start
with a staff of about 10, eventually growing to about 20, the company said.
The majority of Cryptologic's Toronto staff of 250, including its software
development team, will stay put. The company will list on London's
Alternative Investment Market, and maintain its Toronto and Nasdaq listings.
Mr. Rose said the main driver of the move was a desire to be closer to
customers. About two-thirds of CryptoLogic's customers are international,
with about 60% of those in the United Kingdom and Europe. "If you follow the
logic, it's a logical, practical step. It makes sense to be in the same time
zone," he said. But he also said CryptoLogic -- whose $104-million in 2005
revenue makes it Canada's fourth-largest application software firm -- wanted
to move to a "gaming-friendly environment."

The climate for Internet gambling in North America has turned sour lately.
The U.S. House of Representatives in July passed a bill to expand the 1961
Wire Act, which bans gambling over the telephone, to include the Internet.
The Senate is expected to move on the bill before it recesses on Oct. 9 for
mid-term elections.

Authorities have also carried out a high-profile crackdown over the past few
months with arrests in U.S. airports of several British gambling operator
executives.

The arrests cast a pall over the industry, causing Britain's Continent 8
Technologies PLC -- 40% owned by the Mohawks in Kahnawake, Que. -- to cancel
its initial public offering last month.

"There's no question the U.S. has created a situation of uncertainty," Mr.
Rose said.

On Friday, French authorities detained Manfred Bodner and Norbert
Teufelberger, the co-CEOs of Austrian betting firm bwin.com Interactive
Entertainment AG.

The difference, analysts pointed out, is the French arrests were not for
moral reasons, but for alleged violations of the state-granted Internet
gambling monopoly of Francaise des Jeux.

The European Commission is investigating whether these monopolies are
violating the rights of commercial gambling site operators to run their
businesses across the European Union.

In Europe, it's therefore a case of protectionism rather than morality,
analysts said.

Europe -- and particularly the U.K. -- is proving to be a panacea for the
sector by going in the opposite direction to the United States. Starting
next year, the U.K. will license, regulate and tax online gambling, making
it "the centre of the universe for online gaming," Mr. Rose said.

Canada has taken a more-European approach in that Internet gambling is
allowed, but only provinces and territories have the right to run such Web
sites. That has created a grey area for would-be commercial operators and
technology providers such as CryptoLogic.

Pennsylvania seems eager to make up for lost time. According to the
Associated Press, the state hasn't even opened a slot machine but officials
are already talking about table games. At a recent hearing, the state Gaming
Control Board asked racetrack owners seeking slot-machine licenses if they
were prepared to go to table games. They all answered yes. Table games, such
as roulette and poker, pull in bigger spenders than do slots. So in the war
between the states over gambling revenues, table games are emerging as the
latest weapon. Delaware should take note. The First State's slot machines
have boosted the state's revenues for years as legislatures in Pennsylvania
and Maryland bickered. Now Pennsylvania will soon have slots and who knows
what next. Pennsylvania has authorized 61,000 slot machines. It expects $3
billion in revenue. Both are ambitious goals.

The big question is: How much, if any, of that business will be pulled from
Delaware racinos? And what effect will that have not only on Delaware's
state treasury but also on the purses at the state's three racetracks?

In other words, is state-authorized gambling a zero-sum game? If
Pennsylvania wins, does it mean that Delaware automatically loses?

It's hard to imagine that the market for gambling operations is unlimited.
That certainly wasn't true for state lotteries. As more of them grew, the
first states lost their advantage. A similar tale can be told about the
slots in other parts of the country.

Delaware's slot-machine bonanza will not last forever. If Delaware wants to
stay in the game, it has to get going now.

The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska wants to open negotiations with Nebraska, so
it can expand gambling on its on its reservation. Winnebago officials
believe many Nebraskans want casinos even though the petition to legalize
casinos that the Winnebago, Santee Sioux and Omaha tribes backed earlier
this year failed to gather enough signatures to get on the ballot. And
earlier this month, the state Supreme Court ruled that a different casino
measure can't be on the November ballot because it was too similar to
measures Nebraska voters rejected in 2004. So the Winnebago Tribe decided to
pursue negotiations with the state to allow Class Three gaming. Slot
machines and table games, which are not currently allowed under Nebraska
law, are included in Class Three gaming.

Could be bad news for the over 20 million online poker players According to
thehill.com yesterday the online gambling poker bill is back and alive.
Controversial language to curb illegal gambling on the Internet snuck back
into the defense authorization bill over the weekend. While the language in
the bill was not finalized as of press time last night, the insertion of the
Internet gaming language could be a big win for Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist (R-Tenn.). But that potential victory hung in the balance on Monday as
House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) continued his threats to postpone a
vote on the overarching bill until negotiators from both chambers include
unrelated measures on immigration and court security. "The Speaker will not
move this bill until these critical security measures are included in it,"
Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean said yesterday. Conferees were still ironing
out defense-related issues yesterday, but lawmakers are now fighting to
include a number of non-defense items in the must-pass bill that has become
a regular vehicle for pet projects. The Internet gaming language would
create an additional enforcement mechanism for federal officials to crack
down on money transferred from banks, credit card companies and other
financial institutions to gambling outfits overseas. Internet gambling is
already illegal in most of the country, with the major exceptions of Nevada,
Indian reservations and other smaller locales where residents have voted to
change the law.

The fight in Congress to enact further enforcement methods has persisted
since former GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff fought to defeat a bill offered by
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) in the summer of 2000.

Goodlatte combined his language with a bill introduced by Rep. Jim Leach
(R-Iowa) that passed the House earlier this year.

The language included in the defense reauthorization bill appeared to mirror
Leach's language, numerous outside lobbyists said over the weekend. Sen. Jon
Kyl (R-Ariz.) has been pushing a companion to the Leach bill, which is far
narrower than Goodlatte's legislation that would, among other things, revamp
the 1961 Wire Act.

Frist has been working hard to include some version of the Internet gaming
language in the defense reauthorization bill in what a number of outside
lobbyists see as a push to ingratiate himself with social conservatives and,
more specifically, Leach, whose endorsement would be a big boost during the
Iowa primary.

Frist co-hosted a field hearing on Internet gaming with Leach earlier this
fall in Iow.

The Internet gaming issue is far from settled because conference
negotiations do not end until all the negotiators have signed off on an
agreement.

This move to include an Internet gambling curb comes after Senate Armed
Services Chairman John Warner (R-Va.) and Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the
committee's ranking Democrat, rebuffed Frist's attempts to include it in the
bill because it is not related to defense policy.

K Street has been watching the back-and-forth on Internet gambling intently.
Wall Street, in particular, has already priced Internet gambling stocks to
reflect some of the possibility that Congress will approve the legislation.

A unit of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co, an Arlington, Va.-based
investment firm, has been tracking the legislation closely as it related to
various Internet gambling companies. In a report last week, the firm wrote
that "failure to attach a gaming provision to the DOD authorization bill
likely means that proponents have missed their last best chance to pass
anti-gaming provisions.before senators head home for the final campaign
stretch run."

Hastert has told negotiators that he will not move the bill unless there is
authorizing language to boost the security of judges in and out of
courtrooms, eases the process of deporting convicted gang members, and bars
their indefinite detention.

Senate leaders promised to include the courtroom language, which was part of
a larger child safety that passed the House earlier this year, on must-pass
bill some time this year, a House GOP leadership aide said yesterday.

Hastert has made a bill political issue of this push following the brutal
murder of the family of a federal judge in Chicago earlier this year. Sen.
Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) has also pressed for the legislation.

On the immigration language, House leaders said they have borrowed language
included in the Senate's own comprehensive immigration bill that was
approved this past spring.

Senate Democrats are critical of the gang-related measure, and the American
Civil Liberties Union said the measure is too broad and could negatively
impact legal immigrants. A spokesman for Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) refused
to comment on the issue.

House leaders hope to include other border security provisions in a spending
bill for the Department of Homeland Security. At least one Republican
conferee has criticized that move.

At a National Press Club briefing yesterday, Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) Senate Judiciary Committee chairman and a
member of the Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee, criticized the
House's decision to enact its some immigration measures by including them in
the 2007 homeland security defense appropriations bill.

"The House of Representatives doesn't think much of the bicameral system,"
Specter said. "The Senate and House passed bills, but somehow we can't go to
conference on them. Now the House wants to take their key provisions and
enact them, which would take all the leverage away from the Senate bill."

He said that the Senate has pending provision for a fence running along the
southwest border, but that he is not for the "fence piecemeal.

The proposed Frist, Senator Jon Kyl bill to the Senate the online casino
anti-internet gaming bill leaves out horse racing, and lotteries so the bill
will that way be supporting online horse racing, and lotteries ALLOT - so it
would be total okay to gamble online on horse racing but online poker will
get banned - what an insane bill!.

A huge scientific poll conducted in March 2006 of over 30,000 likely voters
establishes that Americans overwhelmingly DO NOT want the federal government
enacting laws that restrict a recreational activity such as online gambling,
an activity that many adult Americans have decided to do from their own
homes. Almost 80 percent of Americans are opposed to the pending bills in
Congress to ban online gambling.

A recent CNBC poll showed also that over 90 percent of Americans would like
to see online gambling poker regulated in the U.S. and NOT prohibited!
Studies have shown that regulation and taxation of online poker could net
the federal government over $3.3 billion in revenue annually and another $1
billion for the states on internet gambling.

OVER 80 countries worldwide including the UK, are right now starting to
legalized and regulated online gambling and online poker gambling.

Senate should use its litle time left this year on other importen things
instead of banning online poker.
Telling American adults how to use their hard-earned money, whether on
e-bay, horse racing or on playing online poker after a hard days work,
should simply not be the federal government's job.

Over 20 Million peaple in USA enjoy online poker- that's 20 miilion votes.

A controversial Internet gambling measure may hitch a ride on a Defense
Department authorization bill, but as of press time, a standoff over adding
legislation to improve courthouse security and crack down on illegal
immigrants in gangs continued to hold up action on the overall Defense
package. While it was not clear that Senate Armed Services Chairman John
Warner (R-Va.) has actually agreed to attach the anti-gambling legislation,
Republican leadership sources on both sides of the Capitol said the measure
would be added to the Defense bill. "It's Kyl-style, with a Frist twist,"
said a senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) of
attaching the Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) bill designed to bar Internet gambling
by preventing credit card companies from honoring charges on gaming Web
sites. The aide said the Internet gambling bill has been tweaked slightly to
ensure optimum support in the Senate, though details of the changes to Kyl's
original bill were not available. Warner spokesman John Ullyot declined to
comment, saying, "This is in line with the long-standing committee policy to
keep such negotiations confidential." Still, one GOP lobbyist working
against the gambling bill said Warner and Frist had a "showdown" last week
over the Internet gambling legislation, with Warner telling Frist that he
wasn't going to put the Internet gambling bill in the Defense authorization
bill. "Then Frist told him the [DOD] bill won't come to the floor," said the
lobbyist.

Meanwhile, Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has threatened to prevent the
measure from coming to the House floor if Warner does not agree to include a
House-passed courthouse security bill and the gangs legislation.

Warner is concerned that any of the three bills could complicate passage of
the larger authorization measure, sources said.

The wrangling over the three law enforcement measures provides a glimpse
into the end-of-session gamesmanship that goes on behind the scenes as
Members seek to add controversial measures to one "must-pass" bill or
another.

And because GOP leaders in both chambers have vowed to recess at the end of
this week so that Members can go home to campaign for this year's pivotal
midterm elections, Members and lobbyists have stepped up their push to get
their measures sent to the president's desk before Congress adjourns.

One Democratic lobbyist working against the gambling bill called the past
few days a "roller-coaster ride."

"Frist has been on a jihad about Internet gambling," this Democratic
lobbyist said.

Democratic Senate aides also complained that they have been left completely
out of the bargaining process, and that the Senate Judiciary Committee,
which has jurisdiction over all three bills, has not approved the versions
currently being considered for inclusion in the DOD authorization measure.

"It's just such a sneaky and sleazy way to go about it," said one of the
aides.

Three bills are moving this week that could play host to the Internet
gambling, courthouse security and gangs bill: the spending bills for the
Defense and Homeland Security departments and the Defense authorization
bill.

But GOP and Democratic Senate sources said that backers of the bills were
rebuffed in their attempts to get them attached to the annual Defense
spending bill, which has more of an imperative to move since it will
actually disburse funds to U.S. troops.

Because House and Senate conferees signed off on a conference report for the
Defense spending bill last week, any attempts to add extraneous language now
would send the appropriations bill back to conference committee - an
unlikely scenario.

Meanwhile, conferees for the Homeland Security spending bill were hoping to
wrap up their conference report last night.

That leaves the Defense authorization bill as the only measure in a position
to carry the controversial provisions and still have a chance of passing
this week.

Bill backers are betting that opponents of all three Judiciary bills will
fear the political ramifications of voting against any national defense
measure in this potentially volatile election year. And by threatening to
hold up action on the bill, both Frist and Hastert hope to force Warner's
hand, reasoning that Warner would be loath to see his authorization bill
become unnecessary, like so many other federal agency authorization bills
that languish in committee each year.

While it is unusual for Congress not to pass a Defense authorization bill,
it only authorizes funds; it does not distribute them.

Even though leadership sources said the Internet bill would be included on
the Defense authorization bill, the conference committee on the bill has not
yet completed and the deal could hinge on whether the court security and
gang bills are also included.

Additionally, Democratic sources said they were not convinced that Warner
would go along with the gambit to include the law enforcement bills in the
Defense measure.

The Democratic lobbyist said that Warner was not likely to cave in to the
pressure.

"You very likely might not have a Defense authorization bill," the lobbyist
said.

Other opponents of the Internet gaming bill said that any legislative
vehicle could be fair game.

"We remain on guard that the Internet gambling prohibition could be
included" in any remaining bills, said John Pappas, a spokesman for the
Poker Players Alliance, which opposes the ban.

Indeed, if the impasse does not get resolved this week, backers of the three
bills could attempt to add the measures to legislation such as an omnibus
appropriations bill that would be set to move through the lame-duck session
after the Nov. 7 elections. And of course, if the Defense authorization bill
does not get passed this week, the battle could then begin anew as well.

Think of Costa Rica and flashes of colorful birds, bright beaches and long
hikes through the rain forest come to mind. But several recent arrests and
indictments have thrust the country into the spotlight for another, less
savory reason: its cozy relationship with the online gambling industry. The
industry is under fire from U.S. authorities, helping create the notion that
this small Central American nation is the cybernet version of 1950s Cuba.
Earlier this month, police arrested British national Peter Dicks, a top
official of Sportingbet, at JFK Airport in New York. In July, authorities
picked up BetonSports CEO David Carruthers, also a British citizen, at
Dallas/Fort Worth airport. Both companies operate in Costa Rica. Ten other
Betonsports employees have been arrested in the United States. All are out
on bond while facing charges ranging from tax evasion and racketeering to
wire fraud and illegal gambling. Also in July, U.S. prosecutors indicted
four men, two of them Costa Rican citizens, in California and arrested one
of them on charges of running an illegal online gambling operation in Costa
Rica. The moves by the U.S. Justice Department have industry insiders
scratching their heads and shares of online gambling companies tumbling on
international stock markets.

''It baffles me,'' said Eduardo Agami, president of the Costa Rican
Association of Call Centers and Electronic Data, which represents 19 of the
online gambling companies here. ``Why go after companies that are trying to
operate legally?''

The legal arguments are based on the 1961 Wire Act, which forbids gambling
over the telephone, but until recently few actions had been taken to slow
this business.

Online gambling has been going on since the mid-1990s, and Betonsports and
Sportingbet are both publicly listed companies that operate legally and are
audited in several countries. Still, with half of the betting coming from
the United States, federal prosecutors and lawmakers seem bent on going
after the $12 billion industry.

''Internet gambling threatens our families by bringing addictive behavior
right into our living rooms,'' Senate Majority leader Bill Frist said
earlier this month on the Senate floor.

In July, the House of Representatives passed a bill expanding the Wire Act
to include Internet gambling; the Senate is expected to move on the
legislation before it recesses Oct. 9 for mid-term elections.

''The U.S. has clearly stated that they want to stop international companies
from accepting Internet wagers from U.S. residents,'' Internet gambling
mogul Calvin Ayre -- who is one of Forbes magazine's 1,000 richest men in
the world and whose Internet site, Bodog.com, also operates in Costa Rica --
said in a statement following the Dicks arrest.

''The only surprise is to find a director of a public company that accepts
wagers from the U.S. to be traveling in the U.S. at this time,'' Ayre added,
referring to Dicks and Carruthers.

In the middle of this fray is Costa Rica, a country of nearly 4 million
people known more for peaceful democracy than for gambling. An estimated 200
online gambling companies have operations here. Some operate more secretly
than others; all of them like the advantages that Costa Rica offers.

The Costa Rican government treats gambling like any other business. The
companies operate with little oversight and pay less in taxes than they
might in other countries that do regulate to avoid money laundering and
other criminal activities often associated with the industry.

Costa Rica also offers companies a secure legal framework and an educated
population, many of whom speak English with a flat Costa Rican accent.

Online gambling, a capital-intensive industry, has given the Costa Rican
economy a boost as well. The industry employs close to 10,000 people
directly and scores of others indirectly through rents, infrastructure and
maintenance. Most of the employees are students or recent college graduates
struggling to find a job in their field but making more money than they
might even if they did.

Alex Schultz, 28, who speaks Spanish, English and German, got a degree in
political science at a local private university. He worked at a human rights
group before getting a job at Bodog.com in 2002. Now he's setting the
betting lines on games.

''Here you can finance your studies, pay your expenses and your rent,''
Schultz said.

In the current climate, Costa Rica also may offer a safe refuge. Betonsports
founder Gary Kaplan is allegedly in Costa Rica, although employees here say
he hasn't been around in years.

There's an extradition agreement between Costa Rica and the United States,
but Costa Rica's Vice President and Justice Minister, Laura Chinchilla, said
someone would have to be breaking Costa Rica's own laws in order to be
extradited.

''If they're only accused of illegal gambling in the United States, then we
can't proceed [with the extradition],'' she told The Miami Herald.

Initially, industry watchers suspected the U.S. government was targeting
Betonsports because of Kaplan, alias ''Greg Champion'' or ''G.'' Kaplan
started his career as a runner for bets on the streets of New York and was
arrested there in 1993 on charges of illegal gambling before moving his
operations to Florida, then Antigua and finally Costa Rica.

Indeed, the indictment against Betonsports reads like something against the
Sicilian mafia or Colombian drug lords. Filed in the Eastern District of
Missouri, it's littered with supposed aliases, front companies and massive
bank transfers that went to Ecuador and Belize.

Costa Rican officials are feeling the pressure from the U.S. government as
well. They have promised to better regulate the industry, and in March, the
government raided Ayre's multimillion-dollar home after neighbors said he
was holding an illegal gambling event. Authorities said they found nothing.

''We're interested in incorporating them into the financial system,''
Chinchilla said about the industry. ``We need to set up clear rules. We
don't want companies that are fugitives.''

Legislation or no, there seems to be little stopping online gambling.

Spin3, the leading wireless casino system provider powered by Microgaming,
the world's largest online gaming software provider, won the 'Best Gambling
Company' award at the first ever ME Awards, hosted by Mobile Entertainment
magazine. Spin3 was declared the winner by a judging panel comprising over
300 mobile content executives. The Mobile Entertainment award recognized the
pioneering work Spin3 has done in the mobile gambling arena, by bringing
popular casino games including unique progressive video slots and brands
like Lara Croft to wireless platforms. The award recognizes the success and
growth Spin3 has achieved since its launch in January 2005. Tim Green,
executive editor of Mobile Entertainment magazine, said: "These awards
recognised the talent and hard work that is making mobile content the
world's most exciting new industry. It was a truly amazing night and we look
forward to doing it all again next year - in a bigger room." The ME Awards
took place on September 19th at the Royal Garden Hotel in London. The
prestigious industry event recognised outstanding achievement in content
development and publishing, technical services and hardware, and operator
services.

"The ME Award is a great achievement and honour for Spin3 to be named the
best in a niche industry that is witnessing phenomenal growth," said Matti
Zinder, CEO, Spin3.

"The Award recognizes our drive to stay ahead in a dynamic market by
continually diversifying our products, developing unique and innovative game
offerings and providing customers a full service solution, not just a
software package."

Spin3 utilises Microgaming's market leading software to offer three wireless
game systems: GameWire - the leading real-play wireless casino system
worldwide; SpinFone - an advanced Pay Per Download networked gaming system;
and, SpinLite - a stand-alone java game suite.

MARK Vaile's departure from the trade portfolio after seven years presents
an opportunity to rethink what Australia wants to achieve in trade, what we
need to do to get it, and what changes that will require. Any honest
assessment has to conclude that Australia's trade is in terrible shape.
Until 1980, our trade was more or less in balance, and on goods, in surplus.
Since then, we have run trade deficits in 22 of the past 26 years, and in
the past four years they have averaged more than $20 billion a year. Our
share of global exports of goods has shrunk from 1.12 per cent in 1996 to
0.94 per cent in 2004. Of the 30 OECD members, only three have had worse
export growth in that time. Surely it's time for honest debate about what
has gone wrong, what could go right, and what has to change to get us there.
But that requires an environment in which governments feel able to admit
that something has gone wrong, and to change their policies and structures
to put it right. We don't do things that way here. Suppose we did. Let's
start by asking what we are trying to achieve in trade, and why it is not
delivering the goods.

It is futile to blame Vaile for the deficits, although Labor's Kevin Rudd
incessantly does so. The problem is that Vaile was really not Trade
Minister, but Minister for Trade Negotiations. He is a good bloke, a hard
worker and a straight talker, who threw himself into the job with gusto, and
won global respect from his peers.

The problem was not the minister, but the job. Trade is now a branch of the
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It is now seen more as a vehicle
for improving Australia's diplomatic relationships than its economic
prosperity. Under Labor and Nationals, it

has focused on trade negotiations, not trade outcomes. Even if it wanted to
get Australia's trade back in the black, it has few levers to achieve it.

Of all the trade negotiations we have engaged in, only the Doha round offers
any relief for our chronic trade deficit. Even good free trade agreements,
such as ours with New Zealand and with Thailand, work because they offer
evenly balanced benefits to both sides. If you pursue trade deals with far
bigger economies such as the US and China, you end up signing on their
terms - as John Howard did in signing a deal that removed all our trade
barriers to US exports while it retained dozens of barriers to ours.

The modelling on both sides agreed that it would worsen the Australia-US
trade imbalance. And so it has.

What about Labor? Far from planning to liberate trade from its role as a
branch of diplomacy, it has downgraded it even

more by making it a part-time add-on for shadow foreign minister Kevin Rudd.

Both sides need to recast trade where it should be: as an economic
portfolio, linked to the bureaucracy responsible for other economic areas -
and with a clear, stated goal of getting Australia's trade balance back in
the black.

Step one is to move trade into a department where it fits: what is now the
Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources. Manufacturing, commerce,
mining, energy, tourism and services: they're all here, and they make up 80
per cent of our exports and almost 100 per cent of our imports.

(That leaves out agriculture. No problem: upgrade the Department of
Agriculture's role and resources on trade to give it the clout of its
foreign counterparts.)

Merely reshuffling the bureaucracy, however, would be useless without a
change in policies and priorities. The Industry Department is seen these
days as having little clout, little money and being frightened to put a foot
out of line. Its minister, Ian Macfarlane, doesn't frighten easily, but his
approach to industry is to go out and tell it what it's doing wrong, and
don't come to government for help. Nice line, minister - if it works.

The figures suggest it hasn't. Output of goods other than buildings fell
almost 4 per cent in the year to June. Macfarlane has now set up a taskforce
to re-examine Australia's industry policy settings, focusing on "global
integration". Read the background paper, and you realise why trade belongs
in his department. The future for exposed sectors of manufacturing clearly
lies in their integration with global markets.

We've been here before. The last industry policy review, under John Moore,
set up a good policy structure, with "action agendas" supposed to identify
and tackle the problems facing specific industry sectors. But then Moore
moved on, and the action agendas became words with little action. There was
no money to finance reform, and no commitment to make them work.

Now Macfarlane has a chance to make them, or some new model, work where
policy since 1997 has plainly failed. The manufacturing malaise has to be
tackled because most of the world's trade - most of Australia's merchandise
trade - is in manufactures. Last year we ran a staggering $92 billion
deficit in manufacturing trade alone. We need reforms to stop that getting
worse. And unless we want to trust in praying that global prices for our
minerals stay high and volumes grow, we must identify ways to significantly
cut that deficit, and get back in the black.

Another 25 years of global warming might not create a disaster, but why take
the risk? Another 25 years of big trade deficits might not create a disaster
either - but why take the risk?

Tim Colebatch is economics editor.

The crackdown on internet gambling in the US has begun to frighten off
senior directors. World Gaming chairman James Grossman and non-executive
director Clare Roberts have both resigned from the online gaming group on
fears they will be arrested in the US. advertisementDavid Carruthers, chief
executive of Betonsports and Peter Dicks, chairman of Sportingbet, have both
been arrested in the US recently in connection with online gambling laws.
The arrests have prompted others, including PartyGaming's chairman Michael
Jackson, to say he would not travel to the US unless absolutely necessary.
Both Mr Grossman and Mr Roberts practice as attorneys in the US, outside
their work for World Gaming, while Mr Grossman is also an adviser to the US
Government, a spokesman said. Ms Roberts is a former Attorney General of
Antigua. "Clearly they've got other business interests and they've got to be
able to go to the US to be able to carry on their other business interests,"
World Gaming's spokesman said. It said replacements would be named in due
course.

World Gaming, which makes the bulk of its money from US gamblers, said
earlier this month it was in talks over a possible all-share takeover by
Sportingbet. However, Sportingbet shares collapsed after Mr Dicks was
arrested.

Online sports betting in the US contravenes the 1961 Wire Act, though
whether internet poker and casino games break that law is a legal grey area.

The adage, "they'll get what's coming to them" finally came true for the
many bars in central Indiana that ran illegal gambling, either through
illegal slot-like machines, called "cherry masters," or by running numbers.
For those of you who think of "running numbers," as slum-centered it's been
going on in area bars for years. Here, it's called "drawings," where someone
buys a number and hopes it gets pulled to win the pot. Sounds innocuous.
Cherry masters seem like innocent fun, too. Both are illegal and probably
rigged. Who knows for sure because no one regulates it. It's governed by
greed. Oh, and no one pays taxes on the winnings.
We don't know if any of the 39 people arrested over the past two days are
guilty. They are innocent until proven guilty. We're not casting individual
blame, we're just acknowledging that illegal gambling in Madison County and
its environs has been overt, well-known and ignored by every law enforcement
officer and agency for years. It included the cops who drank at those spots
to their bosses who knew about the activities at those establishments.
Imagine how much larger the coffers of state and local governments would be
if they had gotten a slice, through taxes, of that multi-million dollar
industry. Imagine how much easier it would be for legitimate, law-abiding
businesses to compete had their competitors not been awash in illegal
gambling money.

And when people operate outside the law, they don't act outside the law just
a little. In for a dime, in for a dollar. When there is this much money at
stake, assume there is extortion, bribery and violence. It all goes with the
territory. High risk, high return. Oftentimes, the only way out of a life of
crime is either prison or death. We're not exaggerating.

So, yes, we're delighted police swooped in and seized millions of dollars of
criminally gotten assets. Local governments will divvy up the spoils. Good
for them.

The prolificness of illegal gambling has been an embarrassment to our
community for years and proof that corruption lives in Madison County. The
raids didn't completely stop the problem. Illegal gambling is still rampant
in other area establishments.

Madison County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings says the state excise police have
been building its case against accused ring leader John Neal for five years.
But what about all the illegal gambling long before then?

Why weren't these establishments shut down long ago? We can only guess. Why
were they seized just two months before Rodney Cummings is up for
re-election? Again, we can only guess.

Yes, the bust will play well for Cummings' campaign. In the long run, we
don't
care what the motivation for the raid was, just that it finally happened.

How many times will the American people witness their government taking the
easy way out to dealing with terror? President Bush pushes and advocates
that we must be on the offense to dealing with our enemies. But our Senate,
and other government agencies are not operating that way. They are too
mired in politics, in the proper rules of engagement. The Path to 911,
ABC's docudrama which aired Sept. 10th and 11th recently, exposed serious
flaws in our government to quickly act upon important leads that would take
down our enemy. Now, we are busy playing catch up...or are we? It seems as
if everything is the same. Both administrations, Clinton and George W.
Bush, were at fault for not acting quickly to take down terror suspects that
loudly proclaimed to be a danger to America. America had even the help of
the Minister of Defense of the Northern Alliance, Ahmed Shah Massoud (as The
Path to 911 program revealed) who worked with the U.S., giving specific
intelligence that would have taken out Osama Bin Laden. But we failed to
take him out. Ahmed Shah Massoud died in a suicide attack by Arabs who
posed as journalists, claiming to be from Morocco. He died September 9,
2001, two days before America was attacked on 911. Before he died, Massoud
warned the U.S. that Osama Bin Laden was planning something huge inside
America.

I consider him to be a friend of America who had the guts to risk his safety
to save the lives of others. We don't honor his memory and those who have
died fighting terror in whatever form if we do not act as bravely and take
risks as they did.

It was recently reported that an unmanned but armed Predator drone used by
the Army for reconnaissance missions, shot photos of senior level Taliban
fighters, apparently gathered for a funeral. The order was not given to
fire, and many people like me, are wondering why we made such a disastrous
decision. The decision was a no-go due to the military rules of engagement,
which do not allow any strikes on a cemetery or religious sites. The
Taliban was clearly in the open, and the chance to attack was a perfect one.

We are fighting a new kind of enemy. We must adapt and allow the full
strength of our military forces to defeat them. Taliban activity has
increased this summer, and our response should be to take action to
eliminate a threat before we suffer from it later on.

Terrorists do not care where they attack. Weddings, funerals, mosques...it
does not matter, just as long as the "infidel" is crushed.

Just three days after the U.S. observed the 5th anniversary of September 11,
2001, the argument over how we interrogate terrorists in U.S. custody broke.
A few Republican Senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee expressed
their opposition to President Bush over current interrogation methods.

"....the way in which some members of the Senate have decided to move
[anti-online gambling measures] through reeks of political gamesmanship. The
issue of Internet gambling has not been given a hearing in the Senate, it
has not been debated, in fact, there isn't even a bill introduced."
Following the failure of Senator Bill Frist's attempt to attach an
anti-online gambling ban to an unrelated Defence Bill last week, the 110 000
Poker Players' Alliance leader Michael Bolcerek has launched a strong attack
on politicians who seek to push repressive legislation through Congress at
any cost. Indicating that his organisation was strongly opposed to the
manner in which Frist sought to fast-track his measure, Bolcerek said: "The
prohibition bill is tremendously bad public policy, and the way in which
some members of the Senate have decided to move it through reeks of
political gamesmanship. "The issue of Internet gambling has not been given
a hearing in the Senate, it has not been debated, in fact, there isn't even
a bill introduced. This effort to attach this very controversial and
non-germane issue to vital DoD authorization legislation is a disservice to
the American public and the men and women in our Armed Forces. "Prohibitions
don't work and the American people know this. That is why a vast majority
oppose a ban on online poker. The game of poker is mainstream and enjoyed by
millions of Americans. It is 2006, not 1920, the Internet is a part of our
daily lives. Let's practice good government that actually protects the
family and establish strict regulations and safeguards for on- line poker."

Frist aides have indicated to the press that the Department of Defence
rejection will not deter the Senator and colleagues such as Senator Jon Kyl
from attempting to find other non-germane legislation to which their
anti-gambling proposals can be attached in a bid to drive a law through
below this years legislative season ends around October-November.

News service reports indicate that anti-online gambling supporters are
trying to forge a compromise that would allow them to push through
legislation banning most forms of Internet gambling, aides said late last
week.

Top House and Senate lawmakers have been trying to break a logjam that has
stalled the Internet gambling legislation by attaching it to any one of a
number of must-pass spending bills before the end of the year, aides said.
However, they have yet to agree on a final deal.

According to two sources familiar with the matter, one possible compromise
would focus on a version of a bill already passed by the House, with some
provisions opposed by the U.S. horse racing industry removed. The bill would
prohibit most forms of Internet gambling and make it illegal for banks and
credit card companies to make payments to online gambling sites.

Lawmakers are scheduled to recess at the end of next week so they can
campaign for the November elections. They are expected to return afterward
to wrap up unfinished business.

Electronic-slots parlors would generate thousands of jobs and tens of
millions of dollars to seed local business growth, gambling supporters say.
But the four parlors that would sprout in Greater Cleveland are by no means
a sure bet to bolster the region's economy, anti-gambling forces respond.
Even the local power brokers who back the plan to bring nine parlors and
31,000 slots to Ohio acknowledge that gambling is not an engine of resurgent
economies. "If you were to start from scratch and draw your optimal
economic development paradigm, you wouldn't necessarily include gambling as
part of it," says Fred Nance, adviser to Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and
chairman of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the local chamber of
commerce. Yet Nance, Jackson, Cuyahoga County commissioners and other civic
leaders say slots at two sites downtown - and at racetracks in North Randall
and Northfield - would join lakefront museums and Gateway sports sites as
valued attractions. "This is the biggest project and proposal this
community has confronted since 1990," said Commissioner Tim Hagan.

But critics say, and research suggests, that casinos can exact a toll on
local economies. They pull money from local businesses and create social
costs, due in part to gambling addiction.

It might be a positive for Cleveland, where two casinos along the Cuyahoga
River "will suck money in from the suburbs," argues Ed Morrison, an
economic-development consultant working on business-growth strategies for
the Cuyahoga County Department of Development.

"But you're basically just taking money out of the home market," Morrison
adds.

Local leaders are intimately familiar with the plan -- a team of business,
labor and city-county elected leaders haggled over the details with
racetrack owners and two prominent developers, Forest City Enterprises Inc.
and investor Jeff Jacobs.

If you want to see an ex ample of how quickly this region can change, look
at the articles on this page about gambling. Staff writer Tom Dochat
explains that the approval process for lucrative gaming licenses is hotter
than the handle of a 25-cent one-armed bandit on a Saturday night. Teams of
state investigators have been traveling worldwide to make sure that the
people seeking licenses are as squeaky clean as possible. So much money will
be involved that you have to hope these regulators will be watched closely,
too. In other words, the watchdogs will need watchdogs. Another story is
about how Penn National Gaming's operations in Mississippi weathered one of
the worst hurricane seasons in U.S. history. The company's casinos have been
rebuilt and most of the staff is back at work. Part of that rapid response
was made possible by Mississippi officials who changed laws to make gambling
even more lucrative in the state. Nothing like a natural disaster that
cripples your economy to shake out some business-friendly laws. In
Mississippi's case, gambling had been limited to casinos on the water. Now
it is possible to have them on land. As we also learned last week about West
Virginia, officials there are expecting their own tidal wave of sorts, which
is why they might expand that state's gambling laws so they don't lose too
many customers to Pennsylvania. Penn National intends to have slot machines
at its racetrack in Grantville and is betting that it gets approvals this
week, having already demolished old buildings to make way for new ones.

If they could go into a hurricane-ravaged area -- where everyone was looking
for contractors and virtually all locals were sleeping in trailers for
months -- and rebuild a casino in less than a year, imagine how quickly the
landscape could change around here.

Assuming the company gets its conditional license this week, it expects to
be open by 2008. That's just over a year from now.

I like talking with people about what gambling will mean to this region.
Some people have been seeing opportunities for a while -- we reported nearly
two years ago about land speculation around Grantville. Others see the
potential for crime, drugs and other problems that follow dreams of easy
money.

For years, there has been talk about hotels near the state Farm Show Complex
off Cameron Street and Interstate 81. I'm not sure that expos, craft fairs
and special events make such ventures a sure thing. But if you have a casino
a few exits down the interstate, you might not have many worries about
booking rooms.

I don't know if gambling will be good for this area or awful. I do know that
once a license is approved for a casino in Grantville, the region will be
transformed.

The Royal Customs and Excise Department yesterday morning destroyed 52
gambling machines and 6,391 tokens, which were confiscated in 2002 and 2003.
Four local Chinese have been prosecuted in court for having the illegal
machines in shops as well as apartments. Aside from the gambling machines,
$1,262 in cash was also seized. The four were fined up to $49,200. The
machines were destroyed at the dumpsite in Jalan Sungai Akar. A number of
officials from the Royal Customs and Excise Department oversaw the
destruction of the machines, which were ripped to shreds by a tractor.

BRITISH executives of online gambling companies could be arrested on
criminal charges in Germany if they set foot in the country. Officials from
the interior ministries of the German states of Hesse and Bavaria told The
Business that executives of foreign companies who let German residents place
sports bets online are committing "criminal" acts that could lead to
prosecution in Germany. Germany's threat to foreign managers follows the
recent arrests in the US and France of executives from offshore gambling
firms. French state gambling officials also plan to adopt a tougher stand:
officials told The Business that they will continue to report offences by
foreign betting operators to the government, raising the possibility of more
arrests of executives at offsh