Acknowledgements

There are many people who have helped me to develop the thoughts and flesh out the ideas in this book. As I have repeatedly said in the earlier chapters, this book is intended to inspire an open forum for evaluating and analyzing the various perspectives of gambling – cultural, social, philosophical – brought about by sea changes and advances in information technology. Throughout the preparation of this book, I have time and again reminded my team to embrace an open mind, present the facts, draw references from other jurisdictions, and stay neutral.

Gambling is a very sensitive, even unsettling, subject in many societies. Powered by the Internet, e-gambling has broken down all kinds of barriers imaginable, and we anticipate the discussion and opinions in this book could unsettle many important players and participants in the community. As an initiative, I hope this book has included adequate facts to present e-gambling in a comprehensive and unbiased manner.

My thanks go to the Research Team headed by a very talented trio, T. Chan, C. Huang, and A. Ng. They have helped to review the numerous gambling reports around the world which I read with interest on the web in the middle of the night. Our Dedicated team members, P. Ho, L. Kan, J. Kan, J. Leung, T. Tong, J. Chiu, R. Sia, G. Choi, H. Fung, I. Koo and M. Cheung, have provided crucial help in data collection, chasing up responses to enquiries and areas which require clarification. For administrative tasks and editing the >>