Chandigarh, November 9
Are you ready to gamble on the internet ? Many may already be doing so as several online casinos have an estimated over 20 million users eversince their official launch in 1990s on worldwide web.

Though none of the online casinos accept Indian currency, the number of those playing popular games like Black Jack, Roulette, Craps, Baccarat, Slots, Video Poker, Keno, Pai Gow Poker, Caribbean Poker and Slot Machine from their computer terminals in India has been on the rise.

At present, online casinos accept US and Canadian dollars ,the pound sterling, Germany's deutche mark, franc of France, the Japanese yen, the Netherland's guilder, the Italian lira, the Swiss franc, the Australian dollar, the Belgian franc, the Czech koruna, the Danish krone, the Greek drachma, the Hong Kong dollar, the Israeli, Jamaican Mexican, Russian and Swedish currencies.

In fact, digital money is not a new concept. Though big world banks have been using electronic transfers to exchange trillions of dollars among themselves without ever actually touching a real dollar bill, that technology has not been available to the people . Internet money has come to stay.

There are credit cards, debit cards, bank notes, bonds, travellers cheques—even poker chips can be exchanged for the cold hard stuff.

Mr Warren Eugene, the pioneer of online casinos, is one of the thousands of cyberpreneurs to open up business in cyberspace. He believes that the Net can provide a location for the biggest gambling operation the world has ever seen. And he has proved to be right.

The only but major handicap for the gamblers playing in cyberspace is to find a dependable and credible system here so they can exchange money the same way they do in real casinos. Some form of electronic cashis being considered a possible solution.

This is probably where Mr David Chaums' life's work: e-cash i.e. electronic "coins" that are transferred between individuals, vendors, and the bank as anonymously as paper cash, came in handy.

As a cryptographer and Internet visionary, Chaum championed secure, private, and untraceable digital cash for the masses. Known as the "privacy guru," American-born Chaum is the founder of DigiCash, an Amsterdam-based company specialising in electronic commerce.

In the case of Warren Eugene's off-shore-based Internet Casino, even if people in law enforcement believe that Internet gambling could eventually become one of the storehouses for illicit money, it's not yet clear whether the long arm of the law will be able to—or even want to—stretch that far into cyberspace.

E-cash is now backed by real currency from a real bank and can be used to buy real things on the Internet. But just how quickly we'll adapt to this new cash is still one of the major issues of financial life on the Internet.

Governments worldwide have been eyeing the phenomenon with a great deal of caution, worried about both speed and anonymity of untraceable money. Since it is an important issue, a congressional subcommittee in Washington was set up to look into it.

Mr Stan Morris, who once headed the US Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, testified before this subcommittee. As one of America's top financial cops, he maintained that once major criminal elements discovered the Net's financial technology, it would remove a lot of difficulties they had in hiding and laundering cash.

There are two types of online casinos. One ,where no download of software is required and the other where specific software has to be downloaded.

Casino on Net is one of the leading on-line casinos on the Internet, with well over sevsn million users since it's official 1996 launch on the worldwide web. Casino on Net's games offers a virtual reality sensation with audio and image technology with the feel of a real live casino.

It is the only online casino that offers its patrons the choice of a private table for personal enjoyment or an open table, which can be shared with up to two friends. Additionally, while playing on an open table you can communicate with fellow players by using a chat box. It's just like being in Vegas!

Established in 1995 as one of the first casinos on the Internet, The Gaming Club offers a wide selection of exciting games. It offers over 80 games and secure electronic banking facilities.

And, just in case you're worried about fairness, The Gaming Club's software uses the Internet to access an independent random number generator each time you play a game to produce the card deals, slot bars, rolls of the dice and other chance elements. In this way, there is no "programming" advantage that favours the house or any players who might try to gain unfair advantage by counting cards or "cracking the system". Winnings, even large amounts, are paid directly to players within 72 hours through the e-cash services .

Club Dice is one of the few casinos that offers its players the ability to chat with other players. It also offers a very unique game history log. A player can always check his/hers previously played game results by entering the game history feature for each game. This feature is available for every single game.