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Kasino on net
Wall Street Online Casinos
Internet casinos are outlaw operations in the eyes of the federal government, but they look like solid investments to many of Wall Street's largest firms. Blue-chip investment houses like Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Fidelity hold hundreds of millions of dollars in shares of online casinos and betting parlors, which are publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange and headquartered in places like Costa Rica or Gibraltar. Legal experts are divided over whether American investors and the investment houses that operate mutual funds could themselves be seen as criminally liable for their actions by providing financial backing for offshore casinos. Jaclyn Lesch, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said the agency considered online gambling illegal but declined to "comment on the liability or hypothetical liability of a company or an individual." But Internet gambling analysts and company executives said the investments highlight how widely the federal policy is, in essence, being ignored. Millions of Americans use the Internet to play games like poker, blackjack and roulette, or to place wagers on sporting events.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., an opponent of gambling, said the federal government had essentially given up enforcing laws against offshore casinos. He noted, for example, that casino operators now travel freely in the United States, gathering at trade conventions even though, he said, prosecutors would be within their rights to arrest them. For their part, the investment houses have taken the position that they indeed know there are legal risks involved in investing in offshore casinos, but that the risks are outweighed by the benefits of owning shares in growing, highly profitable businesses. "There is no other leisure business in the world with the same potential for growth and shareholder returns as online gaming," said David Carruthers, chief executive of BetOnSports.