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By Hiawatha Bray,
Boston Globe Staff
June 22, 2007
It's illegal for US citizens to place bets on the Internet -- or is it? A Seattle attorney thinks he's found a million-dollar loophole.
Nicholas Jenkins is the founder of Betcha.com , a new website he describes as "eBay for bets." The hugely successful auction site eBay doesn't sell anything, but earns billions in fees by bringing buyers and sellers together. Betcha works on the same principle, acting as a public forum for people who want to wager on anything under the sun and collecting a percentage of each bet.
Betcha has only been operating for a couple of weeks, but Jenkins is betting he'll make a fortune as word of his service spreads around the Internet. "It's going to pay for a lot of college educations for a lot of people's kids," he said.
What about the federal Wire Act, which bars most forms of online wagering? Or the law passed last year that bars banks and credit card companies from doing business with gambling websites? Those laws don't apply to Betcha, says Jenkins, because Betcha runs no games of chance and accepts no wagers. "Accepting bets is illegal," said Jenkins. "That's why we don't, and that's why we never will."
Instead, all the betting happens between site members. They post online challenges, offering to bet on, say, the outcome of tomorrow's Red Sox game or the victor in the 2008 presidential election. Other members express in terest in the challenge. The parties negotiate the odds and the size of the wager until they agree on terms. Then they wait to see who wins. The loser has three days to pay -- or not.
Losers can simply refuse to pay. But they'd better not make a habit of it. Like eBay, Betcha assigns a "trust rating" to each player. Everybody starts with 250 points, but the number goes up or down depending on whether the person pays off on losing bets. People with high trust scores can be counted on to pay, so people gladly bet against them. People with scores below 250 will soon find it difficult to get any action.
Jenkins said allowing players to back out also shields Betcha from the law. "Gambling is risking something of value on the outcome of a future contingent event beyond your control," he said. "When you retain the right not to pay . . . you're not gambling," Jenkins said.
Jenkins' legal theory doesn't get much support from independent experts. "It would appear to me that the operation is illegal," said Roy Girasa, a law professor at the Lubin School of Business at Pace University in New York City. "The operators are aiding and abetting the transactions of illegal betting."
Betcha has secured credit card processing services, so it can collect fees and manage bet payoffs. Jenkins declined to identify the financial processing company. But Girasa said that company is probably in violation of the new law barring financial firms from working with online gambling sites.
If that's not enough, Jenkins' home state of Washington passed a law last year that elevated online gambling from a misdemeanor to a felony. "I find it very difficult to believe that acting as an abettor or go-between between bettors would not be declared illegal," Girasa said.
John Hayward, senior lecturer in law at Bentley College in Waltham, shared Girasa's skepticism. "It's only a matter of time before they go after this guy, because they're encouraging you to do things they don't want done," said Hayward. "If I were the lawyer representing him, I would like a lot of money in advance."
Jenkins concedes he's taking a big risk. "If somebody wants to make life hell for us they will," he said. "If they don't they won't."
But he insists that if the matter ever came to trial, the odds are on his side: "If you break down the law, and I have to the nth degree, we're right." |
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发表于 2007-6-23 00:42
