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47. Internet backbone providers "may not be able to dif-
ferentiate gambling-related transmissions that are being
sent by a specific user of a particular computer system
from other transmissions sent by other users of that sys-
tem." Sutin, p. 7.
48. Even though a casual gambler may find such evasive
techniques too complicated to bother with at present,
Internet gambling businesses have strong incentives to mas-
ter them--and to develop and disseminate evasive techniques
that consumers will find easy to use.
49. Sutin, p. 7.
50. Quoted in Crist, p. 85.
51. Ted Koppel, "The Odds of Stopping Gambling on the
Internet," ABC Nightline, April 7, 1998, excerpt of video-
taped statement by Kyl. Kyl continued his analysis by
proposing a solution to this admitted problem: "So the way
that our legislation is enforced is to simply pull the
plug at the point of entry into the United States." This
reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of how the Internet
works, however. Thanks to packet switching, Internet
traffic from a given country can enter the United States
from any number of overseas sites. To bar entry of
Internet traffic from, say, Antigua, Kyl would have to bar
all international communications.
52. Professor I. Nelson Rose of Whittier Law School, an
expert on gambling law, offered this trenchant analysis of
why the Department of Justice finally decided to apply
existing federal laws against Internet gambling:
Federal prosecutors had been criticized by
state attorneys general and Congress for not
doing anything about Internet gaming. Now, by
striking at only six companies (and the safest
six to go after from a law-enforcement point-of-
view), the U.S. Attorney General has shown that
her U.S. Attorneys and FBI agents can put the
fear of God into the entire industry--using laws
already on the books.
Perhaps this was the secret agenda behind
these headline-grabbing arrests. The DOJ has
made it clear that it does not support proposals
being considered by Congress, like the Kyl bill,
which would make it a federal crime to make a
bet on the Internet. The DOJ has stated that it
does not want to go after first-time $5 bettors.