Pagcor to Operate or Regulate Text-Based Games?
Smart Communications, the largest mobile phone company in the Philippines, has publicly stated its objection to what it refers to as Pagcor's (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation) plan to operate games of chance via cellular phones. Dr. Rogelio V. Quevedo, Smart's legal counsel, stated, "The majority of cellular phone users are young people, including a large number of minors. Pagcor's plan to offer games of chance through mobile phones would inevitably expose them to the dangers of getting hooked on gambling." Pagcor asked the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) in July to grant it four access numbers to handle text and multi-media messages for mobile phone-based gambling. Smart, however, has refused to give the access numbers to Pagcor because, as Quevedo explains, "We are against allowing games of chance to be made available through our mobile phone network."
Pagcor, which in 2002 signed an agreement with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Movie and Television Review Classification Board to jointly regulate sales promotions using SMS or text-based technology, claims that it doesn't intend to provide text-based gaming operations. Instead Pagcor says it applied for the access numbers because it wants to use them to regulate and monitor the text-based games commonly offered by cell-phone operators, game shows and other promoters--games that are believed to have elements of gambling. "We applied for the access numbers," a Pagcor spokesperson explained, "so that when the time comes that these text games, promotions and game shows are finally classified as such, we can centralize these through our numbers and monitor their operations."
UK Safest For Online Children and Becoming Safer
During Parents Online week next month, the British Home Office will begin a publicity campaign on radio and Internet that will advise kids about safe Web surfing. Home Office Minister Paul Goggins claimed at the recent Promoting Mobile and Internet Safety Conference that England is the world's leader in protecting children online, quoting stats showing that 89 percent of British children knew not to give away personal details online.
Business Plan or Censorship Strategy?
China Unicom, the second largest cell phone carrier in China, plans to open 3,000 Internet cafés by the end of the year. Some analysts speculate that the partly state-owned company's dive into the Internet café scene could be part a government plan to tighten its control over the Internet by letting only a few companies provide services. The company initiated a plan in July to exterminate Internet pornography, and within 10 days police arrested 224 people and shut down close to 700 Web sites.
Australian Election
Australia will hold an election for Prime Minister on Oct. 9, and sports books favor incumbent John Howard to defeat Opposition leader Mark Latham, who has in recent months called for stricter gambling laws and proposed his own national policy to reduce problem gambling.
Mobile CAN-SPAM
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission last month released rules that extend portions of the CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) Act of 2003 to commercial messages sent to mobile devices. Commercial e-mail messages delivered to wireless devices are prohibited, but messages forwarded by customers to wireless devices are not. Although the rules don't apply to text messages, autodialed calls (including text-messages) to wireless phones are already prohibited by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Wireless service providers are required to provide the FCC a list of all the Internet domains on which they offer mobile messaging so that it can create a publicly-available list that will inform commercial e-mail senders which addresses use mobile services.