eConnect to Establish Presence in Hong Kong and Australia

18 March 1999
eConnect, in conjunction with its principal partner, ET&T, is presently in discussions with an Australian group to set up an eGate division of eConnect in Australia and Hong Kong to pursue the goal of PERFECT wagering originating from those countries.

The Australian group, which has just sold an insurance company, has been studying ways of entering into e-commerce and recently contacted eConnect to begin talks.

ET&T will build the bank host processing centers in Australia and Hong Kong and, working with eConnect, will distribute free PayMaster terminals in public locations that will allow immediate self-service wagering, pay per play with ATM cards and value-added smart cards--PERFECT (Personal Encrypted Remote Financial Card Transactions) wager.

The wireless PocketPay (a terminal and phone that fits in the pocket) and the SLICK (a home and office keyboard terminal and an elegant solution for passing ATM-card and smart-card cash transactions to Internet merchants) are expected to be introduced by the fourth quarter.

The terminals are designed to encourage cash pay-per-play impulse wagers--no gaming accounts are needed--and will bring second-by-second service fees cash revenues to eConnect.

"eGate, our eConnect transaction division, will be paid an instant cash fee by the merchants on every cash transaction and will provide services to other bank host processing centers that are driving in PERFECT wagers," stated an eConnect spokesperson.

"This is the first step of eConnect to establish itself as the global service gate of choice to run PERFECT wagers, which we expect to start seeing originate from homes and offices early next year. 777WINS.com will administer global Internet casino transactions being sent to many different Internet casinos, and eSportsbet.com will administer global sportsbook transactions."