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Wednesday,
June 16, 2004
By MICHAEL SCHOLL
 Christine
Mooney has a lot of friends in Trinidad and Tobago, even though she's
never been there.
That's because the Fort Wadsworth resident is a frequent user of Casino
Fortune, an offshore Internet gambling operation run out of offices in
that Caribbean nation.
"The people there are phenomenal," said Ms. Mooney, who said
she telephones the casino's customer service center in Trinidad so often
that she's on a first-name basis with many of its employees.
"They've become like family to me," she said. "We send
each other presents."
The odds at Internet casinos favor the house, just as they do at conventional
casinos, so Ms. Mooney doesn't always win when she gambles online. She
said she has lost about $60,000 to online gambling sites over the past
six years.
But last month proved lucky for her when she earned a special prize for
winning what Casino Fortune said was the two-billionth dollar the casino
has paid in winnings since it began operations about eight years ago.
Ms. Mooney's bonus prize was $5,000 in casino credit at Casino Fortune.
She was presented with a symbolic oversized check yesterday during a ceremony
at the Manhattan office of Casino Fortune's public relations firm.
Ms. Mooney used to enjoy visiting the old-fashioned "brick-and-mortar"
casinos in Atlantic City, but that changed six years ago after she was
seriously injured in a car accident.
For a long time Ms. Mooney was bedridden and unable to travel to the gambling
mecca on the Jersey Shore. She used her home computer to try some online
gambling sites, but didn't find one she really liked until she discovered
Casino Fortune.
Although the casino's offices are in Trinidad and Tobago, the operation
is on the island of Antigua, where the casino's Internet servers are located
and where it has its gaming license.
Federal prosecutors maintain that all Internet gambling is illegal in
the United States, including gambling conducted through Internet sites
based in foreign countries where such gambling is legal. But federal law
does not make specific references to Internet gambling, and judges are
divided as to whether gambling laws from the pre-Internet era apply to
online gaming.
Ms. Mooney said she has never been arrested for using Casino Fortune and
is not concerned about the potential legal consequences of her online
gambling habits. She noted that although she has regained her mobility
and has visited Atlantic City a couple times since her accident, she now
finds she prefers the convenience and privacy of online gambling over
visits to conventional casinos.
"I can play naked [while online]," Ms. Mooney said.
Michael Scholl covers City Hall for the Advance. He may be reached at
scholl@siadvance.com.
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