Monday, November 12, 2001		Article

Las Vegas is just a click away for Namblers
Peeyush Agnihotri

THERE has been a change in trend this Divali. Gambling, an illegal activity in India, is going off the course. Agreed this festive season, a majority of persons are gambling offline in close coordinated groups, yet in what could be called a trend indicator, a number of them are preferring cyber cafes to try their hands at Nambling, a sobriquet for Net gambling. And the law of the land has been kicked in the hind. Both offline as well as online.

In one of its new avtaars, the Net is Las Vegas and Kathmandu incarnated for Namblers. Ever since the news spread that Casino-on-Net gave away the largest one-day bonus payout ($ 40,00,000 in two-hours flat) in the history of online gambling almost a month ago, curious surfers are visiting casino sites just to have a peep on what it’s all about.

"My favourites are Blackjack and Roulette. I prefer those sites where I can play merely for fun, though I do not mind winning hard cash, " says Dilpreet, one of the regulars at a Sector 15 café.

For a Net-savvy person it is fairly easy to charter a route through casino sites. All that one needs is a credit card with global acceptance, besides other essential requirements like a Net connection and a valid e-mail address. Some of the Net casinos allow playing without putting in stakes in ‘practice session’ or what one may call a ‘test drive,’ but actual playing involves filling in a form online right up to the minutest detail of entering account number and password. Most of the time, the payment is done through a credit card. Almost all sites want that the player should be above 18. But then who bothers on the Net.

Nambling is fast settling in the world of e-commerce. "It’s too early to predict a change in trend but yes, the spurt in interest about e-gambling among surfers is overt," a café owner agrees.

Interestingly, most of the e-casinos operate from the USA yet are registered and have their servers at places in the Caribbean, Gibraltar, Antigua, Kahnawake, Australia and Grenada from where they can get Internet gambling licence. Gambling is illegal in the USA and a Nambler can be fined up to $ 20,000 or imprisonment or both.

Some online casinos do not accept players from the USA till the law spells out the legal aspects clearly. Even then, 90 per cent of the total gamblers are Americans. Market estimates also say that Nambling would be a $ 800-million industry by 2010. For that matter, even the number of online casinos has swelled up to 1,500 from mere 200 just two years ago.

Paradoxically, this illegal activity is fair and honest primarily because casinos do not need surreptitious means and crooked games to earn. They have enough margins elsewhere. Casinos have to get a guarantee from one of the top credible accounting firms and regular auditing is a must. Even the software they use has to be vetted by the authorities under a mandatory clause. Some of them may be slow in paying the winners but then it’s their loss in the long run.

Accurate tracking and recording of cash balances is of utmost concern to Namblers. Some casinos have gambling software that provides records of transactions. The best software, according to most of the seasoned Namblers, is the CryptoLogic’s gaming software and e-cash system. The cash balance is recorded on the server as well as the computers hard drive.

It’s not necessary that some software be downloaded before playing on the Net. However, downloading ensures better sound, animation and graphics quality. Financial transactions are handled by electronic cash systems akin those used for online shopping. In case, a person wins, casinos credit back the booty through the credit card in case a player uses that to deposit money. A few of them send a personal identification number (PIN) through snail mail to aid the winner withdraw money. For example, William Hill Casino (www.williamhillcasino.com) advocates the use of PIN, for new players, at least.

Some of those in B2C portal business say that such sites have not been able to create a credible and reliable platform for those interested. Virtual is not real, after all, according to them. "Online payment for gambling is, or rather can be, made as safe as any other online shopping site. However, there are no regulatory bodies to monitor such sites. Also, most sites that offer such a service also indulge in promotion through spamming that further reduces their credibility," Dinesh Aggarwal, CEO, Indiamart, an online e-commerce enabled portal says.

Nambling threatens to be ungovernable under current legal regimes, as most laws were not made to deal with intangible cyberspace. Even if the law takes e-casinos in its ambit, jurisdictional issues may crop up. Till then the stakes would be what a Nambler decides.