Kari Polanyi has written a - I feel - desperate round-letter on the present
financial situation of the institute. Thinking about this important issue,
I found meanwhile - and what a contrast - this piece of international news
from the DIALOG file, which depicts the present phase of the capitalist
world economy perhaps better than hundreds of scholary articles. So,
Polanyiean research has no finance in this world of ours, while the Lottery
thrives...
Kind regards from Warsaw and a please have a thoughtful reading of this
newspaper article (Arthur Andersen was elected by AIESEC, the Polish
Chapter of the International Association of Economics Students, to be the
Polish employer of the Year. Si I had an electronic look-around)
from Arno Tausch
DIALOG Select
Idaho Indian Tribe to Run Controversial U.S. Lottery by Phone, Internet
Don Sheron
KRTBN KNIGHT-RIDDER TRIBUNE BUSINESS NEWS
January 21, 1998
Language: English
Text:
From: San Antonio Express-News.
Jan. 21--The first national lottery available by telephone and Internet
began Tuesday, but not without controversy.
The $1 million US Lottery is operated by an Indian reservation in Idaho,
and while gambling on the Internet is illegal, the reservation said it can
run its lottery because of a loophole in federal law.
The Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation, which also runs a legal on- site
casino, claims it can offer US Lottery under the Indian Gambling Regulatory
Act of 1988 because it is a sovereign nation.
However, a bill before Congress would require Internet service providers to
prevent online casinos from accessing their systems.
The company managing US Lottery insists that the gaming operation is not a
casino operation.
"We are not a casino. We have no intention of offering games like a
casino," said Mike Yacenda, president of UniStar Entertainment, during a
media teleconference.
"We imitate a state lottery completely. We weigh the balls the same,
monitor the same. We are regulated by the state of Idaho and the Tribal
Gaming Commission. We view ourselves completely as just another state
lottery," Yacenda said.
He emphasized that US Lottery is heavily regulated. Participants must be 18
or older, and the operation is under the supervision of national accounting
firm Arthur Andersen & Co.
That hasn't stopped legal challenges, from states such as Missouri and
Wisconsin, which claim the Internet lottery is not on Indian land.
Missouri's lawsuit was thrown out of court because states cannot sue Indian
nations, Yacenda said. And "we believe the same thing will happen with the
Wisconsin lawsuit," he added.
The server for the US Lottery Web site and the phone-answering system are
both on the reservation, according to a spokeswoman for US Lottery.
Several state attorneys general also have voiced opposition to US Lottery,
Yacenda admitted.
"Some of the states are trying to stop us, but we think that's more for
economic reasons than for legal reasons," he said.
A spokesman for the Texas Attorney General's Office said it's too early to
determine what impact the newest Internet lottery would have on Texas.
While people in other states cannot participate in the Texas lottery, the
issue of whether Texans can participate in in a lottery from another state
is "not on our radar screen right now," the spokesman said.
The Texas Lottery Commission, as well, said there was too little
information about US Lottery to gauge its impact on Texas Lotto.
"Maybe in six months we'll have a better answer," said Leticia Vasquez,
spokeswoman for the Texas Lottery Commission. "We're certainly going to be
watching it. There's no doubt about that."
Meantime, the Idaho tribe and AT&T Corp. will square off in a federal
appeals court over access to AT&T's toll-free telephone system.
The tribe sued the telecommunications giant in tribal court claiming that
as a common carrier AT&T could not discriminate against who could use its
services.
Mike Lordi, an AT&T spokesman, said common-carrier status also requires
that a customer's service request is legal and that the customer can pay
their bill, as stipulated by the Federal Communications Commission.
The tribe claimed that AT&T had to provide toll-free service for its
nationwide lottery, which the tribal court supported. AT&T appealed that
decision to the tribal appellate court, which upheld the lower tribal
court.
AT&T appealed again in September 1997 to the U.S. District Court in Idaho.
US Lottery is using GTE for its telephone services, Yacenda said.
While Tuesday's drawing was its first online venture, the Coeur d'Alene
gaming operation has been offering scratch-off games since March 1997.
Yacenda said 70 percent of the lottery's proceeds will go to the tribe.
He said a small number of people bought tickets for Tuesday's drawing
because it wasn't heavily advertised. If there is no winner in a lottery
drawing, the money is rolled over to the following week's drawing. Each
drawing takes place at 11 a.m. CST on Tuesday.
Yacenda said US Lottery is legal in all 50 states, but is being offered
only in those 33 states that have lotteries. The other 17 states are being
skipped because of "social, business and legal reasons," Yacenda said.
The Tigua Indian Reservation of El Paso also operates a casino, but a
spokesman for the Tigua gaming commission could not be reached for comment.
The Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Livingston has no plans at this time for
gaming operations, said Roland Poncho, chairman of the tribe. Poncho said
the Alabama- Coushatta has had a difficult time trying to start gaming
operations, adding that a referendum was defeated in 1995.
The US Lottery is accessible on the World Wide Web at
http://www.uslottery.com or by calling (208) 665-3866.
Copyright 1998 Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. Source: World Reporter
(Trade Mark) - Middle East Intelligence Wire.
Company Names:
• AT&T Corporation
• ARTHUR ANDERSEN & CO.
Descriptors:
• Marketing
• Lawsuits
• Service & Product Use
• New Products & Services
Geographic Names:
• United States of America
• North America
• Americas
• Idaho
SIC Codes:
• 7999 (Amusement and Recreation NEC)
• 7375 (Information Retrieval Services)
World Reporter™
© 1997 The Dialog Corporation plc All rights reserved.
DIALOG® File Number 20 Accession Number 787273