From: s1113645@tesla.cc.uottawa.ca
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 23:03:33 +0800
To: sameer <sameer@c2.org>
Subject: Re: ecash lottery (Was: ecash casino)
In-Reply-To: <199511300250.SAA07657@infinity.c2.org>
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9511292329.A20600-0100000@tesla.cc.uottawa.ca>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Deja vu?

On Wed, 29 Nov 1995, sameer wrote:

> 	I think it would be easier if the lottery owner was just in a
> safe jurisdiction. Then he wouldn't have to worry about the legality
> of it, and not worry about his anonymity. Gambling-safe jurisdictions
> *do* exist.

Wasn't www.casino.org a participant in the ecash trial run? I remember them 
having a highly entertaining disclaimer. They're somewhere in the carribean,
I think. Supposedly (so said the cbc news last year) some gent here in 
Ontario (where non-licensed gambling is of course illegal--the gov likes its
monopoly) set up the domain and the webpage and sold space on the "Virtual
Strip" to interested offshore governements. Since the actual casino sites
aren't in Canada (and probably offshore gov run) it is legal for the 
operators. It is illegal for us North Americans to use though.
I just checked the site and saw quite a few casino operations on the strip.
I didn't notice the ecash logo this time around (I'm doing this off lynx, 
it might only be shown in the graphical version). 

> 	There lies a problem if *playing* a game is illegal in the US, 
Which is what the casino.org page says.

> which I beleive it may be. If the winners can be revealed by
> bank/lottery collusion, then in order to protect the winners the
> lottery can't collude with the bank. This may not be a problem,
> because the lottery isn't subject to US law, so there would be no way
> to force the lottery to collude with the bank to reveaol the
> identities of the winners.

And no economic incentive for the lottery.
What are the regulatory hassles of setting up a gambling operation in one 
of the US states where it's legal (ie Nevada) ?
I take it it would still be illegal for someone outside the state to 
gamble using the service.

Isn't there also some Scandinavian bank that's handling ecash? It might be
hard to explain to US tax authorities how large amounts of anon currency
are ending up in one's marktwain account. In that case it might be 
interesting for someone to setup an anon service provider along the lines
of c2.org which would allow users to run java scripts, no-questions asked
(presuming this is a legal gambling jurisdiction). Java-based casinos, 
anyone? (or just normal unix c progs, given shell access)

Of course life will be much nicer when Chaum sheds his (*ahem*) ethics
and starts licensing to offshore banks. (I take it Scandinavian taxes are 
far worse than American ones. I would think they'd be less 
drug-money-laundering paranoid than the US however. Makes you wonder how
much attention the Fincen boys are giving marktwain at the moment).