|
I discovered something annoying — when you exit
the site another site automatically starts up.
This technique is also used by the porno
industry (or so I've been told) to keep
customers on their sites. To get out of this
loop, you need to close the new site before it
finishes loading up.
Over the next few weeks, I received an average
of one e-mail promotion every two days
encouraging me to return to that site or to try
another site. Each letter gave instructions
about how to be removed from the list, but out
of curiosity about the promotions, I haven't
asked to be removed yet. One message encouraged
me to go back to the site so that I could win a
trip to Tahiti. Another told me that I could win
a bonus of $1000 if I bet $100 on a roulette
number. A recent message told me I could win a
BMW and $100,000 in cash. Many messages
mentioned bonuses for cashing in or for
referring people to their on-line site. Another
told me, "soon everyone would be a winner, you
could be next." The last time I checked, the
opening banner on their site read, "We've
already paid out $61,313,471.93 (in prizes), you
could be next." That is, while researching and
writing this paper the amount had increased by
$4 million.
The on-line industry is growing rapidly. On-line
gambling revenue (not counting day trading) was
a $2 billion per year industry in 2000 and is
projected to rise rapidly over the next few
years. However, the industry is worried about
the possibility of an Internet betting ban by
the U.S. government. Several attempts have been
made to pass bills banning Internet gambling,
but so far, none have been passed. One bill
tried to extend the (American) Federal
Interstate Wire Act to on-line gaming and make
it illegal to bet on-line using a credit card.
Another attempted to ban all other types of
banking instruments for on-line gaming and to
make it illegal to own shares in a company that
runs on-line casinos. One recent attempt was
aimed at stopping money laundering, which would
have forced credit card companies to police
transactions.
Back to casino
news
|
