MGM to Close Online Casino

This article comes from Highwaygames.com

MGM announced on Wednesday that they will close online casino PLAYMGMIRAGE.com on June 30 2003. MGM established the online casino in September 2001 with the aim of providing customers "the same exciting content found in Las Vegas and other U.S gaming markets" with a system safe from money laundering. MGM have decided to close due to lack of regulation in several countries including the U.S despite the online casino's success in achieving their goal.

"We set out to prove that online casino gaming could be implemented with the same high standards of regulatory integrity as land-based operations," said Terry Lanni, Chairman and CEO of MGM MIRAGE.

"Unfortunately, even in light of a successful working model, the legal and political climate in the U.S. and several countries around the world remains unclear. The fact is that millions of U.S. citizens currently participate in online gaming in an unregulated environment. We believe that a more sound and realistic public policy would be to regulate the activity and hold operators to the highest standards of probity and integrity. MGM MIRAGE Online has clearly established that the regulatory model works," Mr Lanni said.

MGM MIRAGE confined its activities to jurisdictions in which online wagering was permitted and did not accept customers from the United States and other jurisdictions which do not permit such activities.