First, a brief history lesson. While reading through Casino City’s iGaming Business Directory I thought about my visit to St. Pierre in the early 1980’s when I went to the island’s “Bootlegging Museum”. This museum traces the history of St. Pierre’s role in bootlegging and rum running during the days of Prohibition in America.

St. Pierre is a mere speck of land (93 sq. mi. / 242sq.km. with a population of about 8,000) in the North Atlantic between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, Canada. However, since it is French territory, American gangsters - entrepreneurs? - were able to import liquor, wine and other refreshments directly to St. Pierre from France and other parts of Europe. The hard working people of St. Pierre put these bottles in burlap bags filled with straw to prevent the bottles from making any noise or breaking. Finally, these sacks were put on fast boats for the trip to the coast of Maine. “Every house, attic, basement and barn on the island was filled with cases and cases of booze,” the tour guide told me.

Now to the connection between internet gaming, St. Pierre and The iGaming Business Directory. This massive directory lists hundreds of gaming websites in countries around the world. These gaming sites depend on money transfers and credit cards so their players can gamble online any place in the world.

However, the powers that be in Washington, DC are now trying to make it illegal for American banks and credit card companies to handle funds from Americans for online gaming . Therefore, the way around this minor legal inconvenience is to find the internet equivalent of another St. Pierre. That is, to funnel the money through another island someplace with a non-gaming name. How about “TheKingsFrozenFishMkt.com?” And I suppose that in this case you won’t have to worry about breaking bottles of booze in burlap sacks or getting caught by the United States Coast Guard.

Casino City’s iGaming Business Directory profiles over 400 iGaming site owners, including their executive contacts and the lists of iGaming sites they own. In addition, 2,500 iGaming sites are profiled in detail, with popularity rankings and cross-reference lists for the top online casinos, poker rooms, bingo sites, and betting sites. The book also includes a list of nearly 200 iGaming software providers, more than 300 other industry suppliers cross-referenced by the iGaming products or services they provide.

The iGaming Business Directory opened my eyes to the global spread of internet gaming sites. I would suggest that readers keep a good atlas handy or their computers logged onto Google so they can quickly find some of the strange and exotic places where internet gaming is springing up. For example, do you know where “Kahnawake” is located? I didn’t, and first thought it was a island someplace in the Pacific Ocean; it’s not. Rather it is located near Montreal, Canada!

In addition the Directory offers a comprehensive section to over 40 “iGaming Jurisdictions” along with a brief summary of their online gaming practices and laws. This chapter also includes a listing of the gaming websites and properties in each jurisdiction.

If you are involved in any aspect of online gaming, Casino City’s iGaming Business Directory and its companion CD are first-class reference guides which should be kept within easy reach.

And finally a word about some strange doings involving St. Pierre’s sister islands, Grand Miquelon which has a large sand bar connecting it with Petite Miquelon. In the 1800’s the hearty French farmers living on these two islands would put lanterns around the necks of cattle and let them wander on the sand bar during low tide to fool the captains of ships in the area. Of course, this little bit of bovine inspired larceny is another story.

Casino City’s iGaming Business Directory, A Casino City Press Publication, Newton, Massachusetts 02459 USA, www.casinocitypress.com ISBN 1- 931732-68-X, Book only US $99.95, CD only US $174.95, Book/CD Package US $199.95

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