Over seventy countries now permit I-gaming worldwide, and many license it
under their sovereign authority. That includes the USA, where a dozen
States license Internet services to take
horse bets, and where such conservative States as Georgia, Virginia, and
North Dakota are moving to accept Internet bets online. This is no bold,
pioneering step--the lotteries of Canada, the UK and Europe have been
online for years.
But the American powers-that-be will not yield. They take refuge in
denial and fantasy. In the DOJ’s alternative universe, gambling is
still a shocking evil, to be suppressed by local prosecutors with
political ambitions. Internet gaming has not actually grown into a
licensed and sanctioned global industry, but is simply a vast plot by
the forces of darkness, as when assistant FBI Director Mershon
pronounced I-gaming “a colossal criminal enterprise masquerading as
legitimate business.” And the Protectors’ tactics are equally
desperate. Unable to make a real world case against I-gaming itself, or
to make other nations obey, the DOJ is now using administrative
measures: “If you ever want to see your Board of Directors again, get
out of the US market.” (You or I, behaving thusly, would be dealing in
blackmail and hostage taking.) And since (according to the DOJ), the
State licensed I-gambling is also illegal, we can only wonder how long
it will take before State officials will also be detained for conspiracy
and the Wire Act. Here’s hoping that sheer moral fervor won’t lead to
the beheading of captives taken by the gambling jihad.
Rumors have been heard that this is all a big business conspiracy--that
American interests are preparing their way into the I-gaming market by
outlawing the competition. It might be better if that were true--there
are ways to communicate with conspiring monopolists, a chance to point
out that cooperation is in their interests, too. But regrettably, it
ain’t so. There is no guiding intelligence behind the animosity. If
there were, they would not try to knock out essential facilities such as
Neteller’s. If dominating the market were the goal, there would be
avenues of cooperation left open as well as procedures which were
forbidden.
This is, in fact, the scariest part of the whole business. It is now
clear that this administration is not buying time to accommodate the
future--they want to make sure that I-gaming’s future never arrives. It
can no longer be doubted that the actual goal, practical or not, is to
eliminate American I-gaming altogether, probably followed by a push
against the land-based gambling that already exists. Frank Fahrenkopf
(American Gaming Association President) said as much at G2E (Global
Gaming Expo) this year. It sounded like exaggeration at the time. Not
anymore.
Will the neo-prohibition crowd be able to accomplish their aim? Hardly.
A $12 billion dollar industry is not going to disappear--in fact it is
still on track to top $20 billion by 2010, and mobile-phone gaming is
set to expand to a $16 billion market all by itself. But there will be
a price: The DOJ’s shortsighted, blunt-force tactics are driving out
the respectable, accountable, progressive and responsible parties who
wanted to participate in I-gaming. By default then, it will go more and
more into the hands of others. The same ones the DOJ swears it is
protecting us against.