ip: Offshore Internet gambling taking *off* -- FROM risks

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Fri, 1 Aug 97 9:56:21 PDT
From: "Peter G. Neumann" <neumann () csl sri com>
Subject: Offshore Internet gambling taking *off*


There are now at least three dozen Internet gambling houses, the latest of
which -- Bet the Net -- begins operating as an Internet casino from Dominica
in the Caribbean in about two weeks.  The expected revenues from all such
Internet operations is estimated at $8 billion by the year 2000, where the
current total take for U.S. casinos is currently $23 billion.  [Source:
Bloomberg News, *San Francisco Chronicle*, 1 Aug 1997, B2.]


The risks include bogus virtual casinos whose payoffs turn out to be more
virtual than real, semi-legitimate casinos working credit-card scams on the
side, glorious opportunities for money laundering, serious gambling debts
accumulated in your name by a masquerader, spawning of serious undetected
addictive behavior that might otherwise be observed (on the Internet no one
knows you are a gambler, except for the casino), your 9-year-old gambling
with your credit card -- especially if your browser automagically inserts
your credit information -- and so on into the night.  As a second-order
effect, massive illegal activities could also lead to attempted restrictions
on the good system security and cryptography necessary to conduct legitimate
Internet commerce.  In any event, whether or not you bet on the Net, don't
bet on the Net being adequately secure!  You are already gambling with the
weaknesses in our computer-communication infrastructures, but NetBet could
raise the ante considerably.  Caveat aleator.