The U.S. Senate voted 90-10 yesterday to "shut down the
online gambling industry, condemning it as a corrupting
influence on young Americans and a major contributor to
crime," according to Jon Swartz of the S.F. CHRONICLE. The
Senate bill must be reconciled with the House bill and the
legislation is "expected" to be signed into law by President
Clinton this year. The bill would "force" ISPs in the U.S.
to "use filtering software to block customer access to
cybergambling." The ban would not apply to "popular" sports
fantasy leagues as long as "fees are not used to pay off
bets" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 7/24). The bill would allow fantasy
league operators to "charge a small 'administrative fee' for
running their sites" (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 7/24). The Senate
bill, introduced by U.S. Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), "enjoyed
broad support," including backing from the NBA, NFL, NHL and
NCAA (Edwin Chen, L.A. TIMES, 7/24).
SPORTSLINE NUMBERS: SportsLine USA reported total
revenue of $7M for '98's second-quarter, a 245% increase
over the $2M during the same period last year. Net loss for
the quarter was $7.5M, or $0.41 per share, compared to
$8.2M, or $0.75 for the same period last year. SportsLine
also said its average daily page views for '98's second-
quarter increased 310% to around 5.3 million, compared to
1.3 million the same period last year (SportsLine).
IT KEEPS GOING, AND GOING...: ESPN SportsZone and the
official Web sites of the NFL, NBA, NASCAR, WNBA and Outside
Magazine generated a total of 864 million page views and 124
million visits from April through June. The network also
includes ABC Sports Online. In addition, ESPN SportsZone
said it registers 8 million page views and over one million
visits on its busiest days (SportsZone).
