--- Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 08:47:04 -0500 From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rahat_private> Subject: Laugh-out-Loud Funny: N Korea seals Net gambling venture Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-UIDL: 52d62edcde7734362a466e2e4b3b3bd4 http://technology.scmp.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=SCMP/Printacopy&aid=ZZZ6K35Z6ZC Friday, March 29, 2002 N Korea seals Net gambling venture AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Pyongyang North Korea, the most socialist of countries, has turned to the unlikely arena of Internet gambling to promote a mass gymnastics exhibition being touted as a global tourist attraction. Although the Internet is virtually unknown in the Stalinist state, a joint venture has been formed with a South Korean firm allowing overseas gamblers to bet money through an online lottery based in the North. The lottery - specifics of which remain sketchy - is aimed at promoting the Arirang Festival, a huge-scale mass-entertainment display beginning in Pyongyang next month. Arirang organisers said they were keen to use the festival, which will see 100,000 people perform in Pyongyang's May 1 Stadium, as an attraction to bring foreign tourists into the cash-strapped country. The gambling venture would allow Internet users to log on to a North Korean-based site and use credit cards to buy virtual instant lottery cards, explained a statement released to foreign reporters allowed into Pyongyang to view preparations for the Arirang event. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Politech dinner in SF on 4/16: http://www.politechbot.com/events/cfp2002/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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