An official publication of Global Gaming Expo

NOVEMBER 2002 

EDITORIAL

It's a Net Positive

By Charles Anderer, Publisher 

The coming of legalized Internet gaming to the United States is a seven-year saga with no predictable end in sight. But at least the story line became a bit clearer last month.
The twin developments of a federal ban in the U.S. House of Representatives on the one hand and the formal entry of Las Vegas-based casino giant MGM Mirage into the business via its new license to operate on the Isle of Man may seem incongruous. But they actually provide the Internet gaming business with a focus that has until now been lacking. Think of the false start of a year ago, when Nevada's state-sanctioned agreement to evaluate potential forms of Internet gaming regulation led so many otherwise clear-thinking people to think legalization was just around the corner.
This time, think of it this way: Internet gaming, as a potentially functioning legal business in the United States, is dead for the time being. Everything now rides on the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, the Orkney Islands and whatever other satellites want to join in.
And that's as it should be, because the Americans were never going to get in the game before their more mature cousins from across the pond. How can a country that hasn't even come to terms with sports betting be expected to sanction online gambling in the home?
If you're an Internet gaming vendor, believe me, you're being spared no shortage of agony. You see, in America, if you're overweight, you can sue the people who feed you. Personal responsibility is in shockingly short supply. A terminally ill 64-year-old woman who smoked for almost half a century recently won a $28 billion judgment against tobacco companies from a jury in California. My heart goes out to her, and the tobacco companies have done all they could to brand themselves as duplicitous, but didn't they start printing those warnings on cigarette packs back in the mid-'60s?
The sickness runs deep. When Sen. Robert Torricelli of New Jersey dropped out of his re-election campaign, amid a wealth of compelling evidence that he had used his office to extract small mountains of cash (and gifts) for personal purposes from a campaign contributor, he actually cried out, "When did we become such an unforgiving country?"
And into this unstable culture we expected Internet gaming and all its attendant controversies to become a staple item in all homes? 
Better that an established American brand such as MGM Mirage can cut its teeth on the European market. Work out whatever kinks in the system, as they relate to underage gamblers, problem gamblers and game integrity. Do it in an environment where thorny problems are still more likely to be addressed through intelligent public conversation.
If you're in America and you think that's an idealization of the U.K., take time out on any given Sunday and tune in to C-SPAN at 9 p.m. EST. That's the weekly broadcast of Question Time, when any Right Honourable Gentleman in the House of Commons can stand up, face the Prime Minister, and ask him whatever loaded question he wants. The PM rises (with nary a political handler or a script in sight) then responds, often brilliantly, and often to the jeers of the opposition. It's the type of freewheeling exchange one never sees in America, and it's oddly reassuring.
The visibility of the United Kingdom in America has increased exponentially since 9-11, giving the English a measure of credibility in the states they've never enjoyed before. Articulate Britain has become Emotional America's verbal lifeline to the world. This phenomenon is real, and it has the potential for all sorts of spin-offs. For one thing, if something works in the U.K., Isolationist America might actually notice.
So, for now, Internet gaming businesses, and those who favor them, would do well to concentrate their energies on MGM Mirage, the Isle of Man and the implementation of Internet gaming regulations in the U.K., which is scheduled to happen in two years' time. America is off the table for years to come.

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