| | |  | | | | Sports Payments
Morgan Stanley estimates that the number of Internet users could grow to 150 million by the year 2000. Gambling's future on the Internet, however, is unknown. Nearly all types of gambling are available on the Internet. Gambling sites include lotteries, horse racing/dog racing, sports wagering, and casino gaming. The dominating types of Internet gambling sites are virtual casinos and sports wagering. Virtual casinos offer software-based casino games. The most popular are slot machines.
Sports wagering sites can work in two ways. First, the Internet site can offer bookmaking where the operator accepts wagers directly from the home user. Second, instead of directly accepting the wagers, the brokers may match wagers between home users. In the past, the operator accepted the risk of winning or losing, now, it receives a commission on the wager.
"Fantasy" sports contests are available over the Internet. By this method of gambling a person chooses several athletes in a given sport to be on his or her "fantasy team." The person accumulates points based on the chosen athlete's performance for the particular game or season. The person competes against other fantasy teams. Major "fantasy" sports include American football, basketball, baseball and soccer. But there are no "fantasy" sites available for wrestling yet. The issue of whether fantasy sports contests can be considered gambling is a matter of dispute that revolves around whether the contest is predominated by skill or chance. Until a prosecutor decides to arrest some fantasy leaguers, it will be left as a question.
Unlike the inroads that the Internet will make in delivering communications, news and entertainment, Internet gaming faces a less certain future. Whether it evolves into a billion-dollar industry or a minor irritation to traditional gaming operators depends on whether it can overcome obstacles. One hurdle is security issues. Because gambling requires payment of money for the chance to win a prize, systems must be established for the transfer of the wager to and from the operator. The operator expects immediate payment of the wager and the gambler expects immediate payment of winnings. This requires the use of electronic transfer of funds.
Cyber-thieves are a threat to electronic funds transfers. The development of Internet gaming will depend on advances in technological improving computer and network security. Most commercial transactions now take place either face to face or over the phone. These traditional methods of commerce have proven to be trustworthy and secure. However, as electronic commerce becomes more common, the location and identity of the party at the "other end" remains unknown, and the authenticity becomes more uncertain. Stealing credit card numbers would be illegal under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, but declaring something is illegal and being able to arrest offenders two different things.
Many kinds of Internet gaming will succeed at least as a niche market despite the obstacles. Internet gambling holds the greatest potential on cutting into the illegal sports wagering market. Traditional casinos, however, probably have little to fear unless the Internet can figure out a way to offer free drinks for players. |
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