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"High Stakes in the Living Room"
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1993 11:42:51 -0500
To: cypherpunks () toad com Date: Fri, 3 Dec 93 1:38:52 PST "In the high-tech future of interactive television, gamblers could bet against the house in the privacy of their homes, couch potatoes could rake in the big bucks with the remote control adn the living room could be transformed into a high-roller's paradise." So begins an article by Benjamen Pimental in the Dec. 2, 1993 issue of "The San Francisco Chronicle," an article entitled "High Stake in the Living Room," page A1 (a page one story). I tried to OCR the article, but newsprint is hard to get a good accuracy rate on and I gave up after seeing a sea of errors to be corrected. Here are just some highlights: - race tracks, lotto games, etc. being talked about. Quebec has actually deployed it, So Calif. tried it to. Several companies (NTN Communications, Videotron) are developing telegaming software and are working with local gaming authorities and racetracks, etc. - other groups are opposed, for moral reasons ("lose the house from inside the house"), for entrenched-interest reasons, etc. - concerns about minors either playing by hacking the system or by watching the unsavory practices of their elders - beginning talk about the need for security--credit card accounts, passwords, etc. (No mention of encryption, though.) So, this is already starting up. Nick Szabo has written about his ideas for "The Internet Casino" and telegambling. Sounds like others are moving ahead. There are some issues of great interest to Cypherpunks and Crypto Anarchists: * What happens to local gambling laws when gambling is just a phone call away? (I'm certainly not arguing for local gambling laws, and I'll be delighted to see them smashed by technology. My point here is to analyze what will change and how the authorites will try to counter the change.) * What happens with remailers and mixes used to reach these remote gambling sites? Casinos in the Bahamas could come "on-line" at almost any time. * Strong crypto means these gambling sites can be reached from anywhere. (A potentially good way to "liquify" digital money: deposit dollars in a Bahamian casino bank, access it via the gambling nets, withdraw it or whatever in ATM machines. A formal alliance between certain types of Cypherpunks and certain types of offshore casine operators could be lucrative.) * Will the "Data Highway Patrol" (DHP) allow gambling packets to move freely? (Scenario: Strong crypto is banned, somehow (?), because the Data Highway Patrol--known affectionately as the "ClipperCHiPS"--needs to make random inspections of "cargo loads." This scenario I expect to happen if the NII goes through.) ...and so on. You get the drift. The Brave New World of strong crypto will nuke most current laws about gambling, selling of information, consulting, payment of taxes, zoning, practicing certain professions without approval, and so on. Interesting times indeed. Speaking of which, I'll be giving a public lecture on these topics next Wednesday, the 8th, at 4 p.m., Skilling Auditorium, Stanford University. More information should follow in a few days. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay () netcom com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. Note: I put time and money into writing this posting. I hope you enjoy it.
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- "High Stakes in the Living Room" David Farber (Dec 03)