Professor,
I shared the dire view as well for many, many months. We literally lost (a portion) of our livelihood by one stinkin’ day ! Had Frist not maneuvered in the 23rd hour, we’d probably be home-free for a couple of years, at least.
What we need to hope for now is one of a couple of things:
1) WTO allows for compensatory damage to Antigua, by lifting
digital rights restrictions on things like music, DVD’s, software, etc.
This will rattle the chains of these (powerful) factions, which could
result in the eventual over-turn of the anti-gambling legislation. It
will be interesting to see how this plays out early next year;
2) New “Democratic” Congress doesn’t push hard for the implementation
of the new anti-gambling legislation on the part of the banking
industry. Failure or “inability” to implement the banking sanctions, may
allow this law to wither away and die;
3) Although # 1 and # 2 may pave the way for the legalization of online
gambling in the U.S., we have to hope that this gets pushed out as long
as possible. Land-based casino involvement in online gambling, will
result in the demise of the current providers. Additionally, it’s hard to
fathom the land-based casinos relying on affiliates to market their
product. Thus, as legalization prevails, the affiliate industry begins to
wither and die, as we know it today.
Personally, I’m hoping that # 1 and # 2 result in the legislation not being
implemented, and I hope that # 3 takes its sweet-ass time. I’d love to be
able to squeeze another couple of years out of this business, even if it is
in a reduced manner, that we’ve all recognized since 10/13/06.