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How the U.S. Is Getting Beat in Online Gambling
Time ^ | Sunday, Nov. 20, 2005 | PETER GUMBEL

Posted on 11/23/2005 10:00:55 PM PST by JTN

Gambling lore is filled with tales of the lucky novice who walks into a casino and breaks the bank. This year it really happened. The fortunate neophyte is Vikrant Bhargava, who is from Rajasthan, India, and admits that he had never set foot in a casino until recently and still isn't all that fond of gambling. But in a single day in June, he and two colleagues walked away with the poker purse of all time: more than $1 billion in cash.

What distinguishes reality from myth is that Bhargava, 32, wasn't playing poker. He is the marketing director of PartyGaming, a company based in Gibraltar that operates the world's largest online poker site, PartyPoker.com Bhargava joined the firm in 2000 when it was an Internet start-up based in the Dominican Republic that was trying to establish a niche in the then novel world of online gaming. Today PartyPoker boasts that more than a million people have played for money on its site this year, the vast majority of them Americans, who are technically circumventing the law, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Flush with success--and with profit margins of 60%--the firm went public on the London Stock Exchange this summer. The June 27 IPO, which valued PartyPoker at $10 billion, was Britain's biggest this year. Bhargava shared the pot with two other reclusive co-owners: a Net pornographer named Ruth Parasol, who switched from carnality to cards in the late 1990s, and Anurag Dikshit, an Indian software whiz whom Bhargava met when both were students at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. They are not three of a kind, but they did cash out about one-fifth of the company.

(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government
KEYWORDS: casinos; gambling; gaming; onlinegambling; onlinepoker; poker
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And thus the US continues in a stupid policy that can only send the large online gaming companies overseas, while doing nothing to curtail actual online gambling in America. Rock on federal government!
1 posted on 11/23/2005 10:01:03 PM PST by JTN
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To: freepatriot32; frogjerk

Ping


2 posted on 11/23/2005 10:01:31 PM PST by JTN ("We must win the War on Drugs by 2003." - Dennis Hastert, Feb. 25 1999)
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To: JTN
same thing with anti-spam/anti-phishing legislation.

MY question is, these f***ers in Congress outlaw email spam but THEY DO NOTHING TO OUTLAW SNAIL MAIL SPAM. WHY?

3 posted on 11/23/2005 10:02:34 PM PST by xrp (Conservative votes are to Republicans what 90% of black votes are to Democrats (taken for granted))
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To: JTN

But......gambling OFFENDS some people!

/runs and hides


4 posted on 11/23/2005 10:02:56 PM PST by KoRn
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To: JTN

Outsourcing vice?


5 posted on 11/23/2005 10:04:24 PM PST by SmithL (There are a lot of people that hate Bush more than they hate terrorists)
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To: JTN
Don't they know that like insurance gambling is haraam and not allowed under Islamic law?
6 posted on 11/23/2005 10:07:35 PM PST by isthisnickcool (Eternity? Smoking or nonsmoking?)
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To: JTN
Gambling

An endeavor for idiots with poor math skills
In the long run,
The house always wins
7 posted on 11/23/2005 10:10:43 PM PST by HangnJudge
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To: isthisnickcool
Don't they know that like insurance gambling is haraam and not allowed under Islamic law?

Given that they're almost certainly Hindu, I doubt they give a crap.

8 posted on 11/23/2005 10:11:44 PM PST by Politicalities (http://www.politicalities.com)
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: JTN

Ever notice how "vices" are always acceptable as long as the government gets its cut of the profits? The college I go to used to be a dry town, until the state government put in a state store to sell liqueur even though there was no vote on it (and might i add, alot of people were p*ssed). I say who cares. The casinoes havent had a drop in revenue have they?


10 posted on 11/23/2005 10:13:07 PM PST by IronChefSakai (Today's theme ingredient is... Budget Deficit! Allez Cuisine!)
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To: HangnJudge
An endeavor for idiots with poor math skills In the long run, The house always wins

No, it's people who say things like this who are the idiots.

Ever gone to see a movie? OMG! Sucker! You lost ten bucks! What a fool! You must be really bad at math, huh?

Gambling is entertainment. Entertainment costs money. People who understand this have fun. People who don't call people who do idiots.

11 posted on 11/23/2005 10:13:29 PM PST by Politicalities (http://www.politicalities.com)
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To: HangnJudge
An endeavor for idiots with poor math skills In the long run, The house always wins

That depends on the type of gambling. There are some forms (poker, horse racing, sports betting) in which the house does not actually gamble, but instead takes a cut of the pot. A skillful gambler can come out ahead in these, and in fact many people support themselves this way - the best do it to the tune of millions of dollars a year. As for the rest, #11 is correct; it should be treated as entertainment. Of course, sadly, some people don't.

12 posted on 11/23/2005 10:18:45 PM PST by JTN ("We must win the War on Drugs by 2003." - Dennis Hastert, Feb. 25 1999)
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To: Politicalities
I actually have no problem with gambling as entertainment
The equivalent to going to a football game / bowling / movie

My experience with some gamblers is however that
They engage in highly obsessive ideation
magical thought permeated with the illusion that the
next bet will be THE BIG ONE
Subsequently gambling resources they can't afford to lose
13 posted on 11/23/2005 10:22:09 PM PST by HangnJudge
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To: isthisnickcool

The names are Hindu.


14 posted on 11/23/2005 10:31:47 PM PST by spetznaz (Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
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To: Politicalities
Given that they're almost certainly Hindu, I doubt they give a crap

That was sarcasm on my part.....

15 posted on 11/23/2005 10:33:04 PM PST by isthisnickcool (Eternity? Smoking or nonsmoking?)
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To: JTN
and Anurag Dikshit, an Indian software whiz whom Bhargava met

Now there's a fun last name to go through life with.

16 posted on 11/23/2005 10:35:33 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: HangnJudge
The house always wins

Be the house...Sell shovels and picks to the miners...

Gambling isn't a thing. Its an expression and manifestation of human nature...it is an abstract.

Be the house...

17 posted on 11/23/2005 10:35:44 PM PST by antaresequity (PUSH 1 FOR ENGLISH, PUSH 2 TO BE DEPORTED)
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To: spetznaz
The names are Hindu.

and Anurag Dikshit, an Indian software whiz whom Bhargava met when both were students at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi.

Uhhh.......Yeah....Looks like they must be......:-0

18 posted on 11/23/2005 10:38:45 PM PST by Cold Heat
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To: dfwgator

Not to mention his first name.


19 posted on 11/23/2005 11:23:00 PM PST by iowamark
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To: JTN
Why would gamble on line? I play poker with some of my 55 year old neighborhood buddies after a long week at work from the office.

None of us would ever do this over the internet. Besides, the cigars and brandy don't quite work so well over a DSL line. LOL

20 posted on 11/23/2005 11:58:46 PM PST by Cobra64
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