2013-01-11 telecoms.com - Chinese whispers

[julz]

Article not specifically about Bitcoin, but about investment/industry in China and developments at CES in las vegas. Quoted snippet is the relevant section.

Chinese whispers


2013-01-11

http://www.telecoms.com/68052/chinese-whispers-3/

...
Also looking for a loophole is the US gambling community, which is constantly running into trouble with complex US laws that prevent businesses from knowingly accepting money transfers for internet gambling purposes. Digital currency Bitcoin is being heralded as a solution, because it’s a decentralised peer to peer transfer technology, those involved can avoid using US banks.

Bitcoin has attracted both good and bad press and falls into grey areas of legislation in many cases. A researcher called GamblingCompliance estimates the value of the US online gambling market at between $4bn and $6bn, and when the government cracked down on online gambling sites in 2011, gamblers in the US had more than $100m in online accounts frozen. The government is still working on reimbursements now. One of the reasons Bitcoin is appealing in this case is because the coins are actually stored on the user’s own computer, making it incredibly difficult for the Feds to seize it.
...

[kiba]

Yeah, but what if the coins are stored on gambling servers?

[lassdas]

Yeah, but what if the coins are stored on gambling servers?

Bad management i guess.

A hammer is a great tool, but you can't blame it if you hit your thumb.  

[fancy_pants]

Yeah, but what if the coins are stored on gambling servers?

With bitcoin, a gambling site doesn't need to store the gambler's coins.  I expect to see poker sites soon that never take posession of coins,  they just deal cards and create multisignature transactions to manage the pot and rake.

[marcus_of_augustus]

Yeah, but what if the coins are stored on gambling servers?

With bitcoin, a gambling site doesn't need to store the gambler's coins.  I expect to see poker sites soon that never take posession of coins,  they just deal cards and create multisignature transactions to manage the pot and rake.

Exactly. The technology exists to run it like this so why wouldn't they? Provably fair falls into same category also. Far out there it could be a p2p network that funds participating node resources through the rake.