Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Dow Jones Newswire reports that against a background of full hotels and an
influx of gambling industry bosses, the absence of online gambling will be
noticed at the Global Gaming Expo this week. Commenting on the absence of
online gambling at the AGA conference, Dow Jones says that it is one source
of possible growth that the big names had been eyeing, but that it seems to
have crapped out, at least for the foreseeable future. It remarks that many
top industry leaders, among them MGM Mirage's Terry Lanni, had been
agitating to get Internet wagering legalised and regulated so they could get
their share of the billions of dollars that were going offshore in the
industry due to the position taken by US legislation. "Executives at those
[online gambling] companies....may be sparse on the ground at this week's
festivities. The recent arrest of former BetonSports.com Chief Executive
David Carruthers as he was changing planes in Dallas has made most, if not
all of them, unwilling to visit the United States under current
circumstances," the article points out. While the Democratic takeover of
Congress has raised some optimism that there might be progress in easing the
ban, at least one e-gambling expert doesn't think so, adds the report, going
on to quote gambling law expert Anthony Cabot who opines: "Anytime you have
anti-gambling legislation passed, it is very difficult for a legislator to
seek a repeal." The public-relations price for being tagged as pro-gambling
is just too high, he continued: "Even the person who introduced the bill [to
legalise gambling in Nevada] got voted out of office."

He believes that one immediate consequence will be "far less participation
in land-based poker tournaments, since the majority of the players come from
online tournaments. The World Series of Poker will be interesting to watch
next year."

The new law and Carruthers' arrest are also muting turnout at the
convention, although a representative for the American Gaming Association
was quick to point out that overall exhibitor and visitation levels are
still expected to be higher than last year.

"We've had about five companies out of 15 drop out on the exhibitor side,
but our [Internet] pavilion is still robust," said spokeswoman Holly
Thomsen. "On the attendee side, it's hard to gauge the impact. ... We're
sure there will be some drop-off as well based on what's going on."

She noted that the trade show has never allowed actual e-gaming companies to
exhibit; their suppliers were permitted.