Ban sees the future of real money gaming as an opportunity for him, and his Togel company. "That [real money mobile gaming] is something that we are always looking to do. Obviously, right now from a legal perspective, in the US its just not doable, but as we branch out internationally, its an angle for the game that we would love to get into, its something that we could do very easily."
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The question becomes what about the good ol US of A?
Obviously, the issue of internet gaming has been a sticky one these past couple
years. The mobile arena, however, seems a little more cut and dried, as
carriers are subject to local laws and regulations. What about a mobile service
offering some kind of offshore gaming application - Is this possible? "In
the US, it is illegal to be running any type of interstate
gaming""We're not in that space, and we have no plans today to be in that
space". "I don't think the carriers are going to touch it, because it
is illegal, and they are a highly regulated industry" says Babbs. Ban
tends to agree "Gambling is a sensitive subject...not only to carriers,
but to device manufacturers and to large networks…it's a little tricky to get
around sometimes".
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Infospace has come up with a value solution where cash does
not change hands, but the more skilled players can be rewarded with prizes that
are donated via sponsors. Prizes range from T-shirts to gift cards, which spend
like cash. Holdem plus for prizes is Infospace's primary poker offering.
"First of all, we wanted to create something that didn't exist in the
mobile realm at all, which is a mobile multi player tournament environment
where people compete against each other for prizes." Thus far, Babbs is
pleased with the results. "We went live late 2003 on Verizon and Alltel
and we've just passed 12 million total games played".
The Hellmuth Holdem game has a ranking system, where players
can go to the games dedicated website, and see how they match up to the other
subscribers on the system. Thus far, Gary Ban is pleased with the results
"We launched Hellmuth Holdem in May of 2004, and given the limited
distribution capability of the game thus far, we are very please with the
amount of subscriptions."
Both of these companies see mobile gaming as a big growth
industry, and are continuing to develop new applications for consumers.
"We have a number of games in the pipeline, most of them are of the multi
player nature. Some are casino games, some action, some strategy, etc"
Says Ban "We focus on trying to build a community around our games, and
tie in the multi player aspect"
It remains to be seen if the ever-growing poker community will
embrace mobile gaming. If these mobile applications are embraced, the real
question will be when or if we take each other's money over our cell phones?
Nowadays, if you are stuck in an airport, your thinking is
probably something like "Damn it. My flight is delayed." Could we see
a day where your thinking becomes something like "Yes! Another delay. I
can get a few dozen more hands in!"? Stay Tuned.
Web : https://elquintobeatle.com/
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