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The growing acceptance of online betting and the Internet's inherent ability to shatter jurisdictions bring the inconsistencies of American gaming law to a boil. Why should it be legal to bet online on a horse race in another state, but not legal to bet on a basketball game in one's own state? If Native American tribes can establish new, legal, physical places where adults can gamble, why shouldn't someone be able to do the same in cyberspace?

Gambling's History

Gambling is as at least as old as Christianity (that is, if Ben Hur can be trusted). About 2,000 years later, Bugsy Siegel took the concept a step further and built the Flamingo Hotel in the desert town of Las Vegas. For decades, Vegas was about the only legal option for gamblers. In the '70s, Atlantic City legalized casino gambling; in the ensuing decades, state lotteries, Indian casinos, gaming ships, offtrack betting parlors and card clubs have sprouted across the landscape.

For years, one barrier to the growth of Internet gambling has been strong opposition from those most threatened by gambling sites: legal American casinos. The American Gaming Association, a trade group of gaming firms, maintains this view regarding online wagering: "The industry has been state-regulated and we think it should remain that way. The Internet is presently unregulated and we support a federal law regulating Internet gambling."

But over the last several months, at least some traditional casinos have pursued the time-honored strategy of joining an Internet gambling trend that they can't beat. In November 1998, for example, a division of Hilton Hotels acquired the company that runs Centrebet, a Web and telephone sports-wagering system based in Australia (www.gotocasino.com). Anyone over the age of 18 can set up an account with Centrebet and place money on a variety of worldwide sporting events, including U.S. college and professional sports.