Jan 19, 2006 11:47 ET

International Gaming Conference & Expo to Launch April 9-11 in Costa Rica Featuring Legal Face-Off on World Trade Organization Decision

HATBORO, Pa., Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Gaming Conference & Expo (IGCE), slated to take place April 9th-11th in San Jose, Costa Rica, has announced that it will feature, among an already extensive and comprehensive program and roster of speakers, what has been billed as "an electric debate" on the impact of the World Trade Organization Ruling on Cross-Border Gaming involving Antigua and the U.S. That conference session, the kick-off of the Expo, will focus on the impact of the decision regarding the future of global interactive gaming. Complete details and information on that and the entirety of the conference are now available at http://www.igconference.com/.


A spokesperson for The Sports Network, organizer of the event, indicated that, "As is usually the case with the rest of the world's industries, the U.S. exerts a disproportionate influence on global commerce. Consequently, when related to a multi-billion-dollar annual industry, whether one agrees with it or not, we decided that it was time to attempt to determine what are the real effects of the W.T.O. ruling. To effectuate that, we called upon Mark Mendel, the lead attorney for Antigua in the case against the U.S. before the W.T.O., and renowned gaming law expert I. Nelson Rose, Professor of Law at Whittier Law School. They will debate and discuss what the ruling really means for the industry."


He further indicated that the political battle over the legitimacy of offshore and online gaming continues to rage on from New York to Los Angeles, Antigua to London, and Costa Rica to Malta while opinions from the most respected legal minds domestically and internationally maintain a steadfast course in their diversity and the complete lack of a standard, a guideline.


"The IGCE," he continued, "is the primary result of The Sports Network's Conference Division and others will follow in the months and years ahead covering technology, marketing, Internet, various aspects of sports as well as others now in the planning stages. The fact of the matter is that TSN, recognized as the acknowledged leader in the area of real-time sports coverage domestically and internationally, has the background, expertise and respect of the industry as most suited to undertake the conference lead in areas such as this."


IGCE, whose major sponsors presently are BetCRIS, Scientific Games and WSEX, will gather together gaming attorneys, investors, analysts, legislators, regulators, marketing firms, advertisers, sportsbook operators, payment processors, as well as technology. The comprehensive IGCE program will examine online gambling, poker, bingo, skill games, sports content, horse racing, land-based competition, gaming platforms, technology, international legal and regulatory issues, marketing/brand awareness, payment solutions, Asian and European markets - the appeal of soccer, cricket, rugby and other sports, the public desire for mahjong/backgammon/casino games/virtual horse racing and much more.


Additional information on the conference is available by emailing info@igconference.com, contacting Christopher Dauer at cdauer@igconference.com or calling 1-215/441-8444.


About The Sports Network


The Sports Network is the nation's foremost international real-time sports wire service furnishing a plethora of content on a 24/7 basis using state-of- the-art technology. TSN's website, sportsnetwork.com, contains voluminous proprietary sports news data that includes, but is not limited to, scores, trends, analysis, news, features, statistics, pre- and post-game reports, box scores, historical data, and very much more. Among its clients are AT&T;, Google, Reuters, Viacom Television Station Group, Tribune Interactive, Knight- Ridder Digital, Lexis*Nexis, Westwood One, Dallas Morning News, New York Times, Boston Globe, New York Daily News, Houston Chronicle, Denver Post, L.A. Times, Detroit News, Clear Channel Network, Learfield Communications, Media News, Metro Source, Comtex and hundreds more. www.sportsnetwork.com is one of the most-sought-after sports web sites on the Internet and TSN currently brands sports pages for sites numbering in excess of 500 while furnishing satellite-transmitted data and online transmission to a host of organizations domestically and internationally.


Source: The Sports Network

CONTACT: IGCE: Chris Dauer, +1-215-441-8444, ext. 2103,
cdauer@sportsnetwork.com, cdauer@igconference.com, or Maureen
McGillian-Galeone, +1-215-441-8444 ext. 2107, Maureen@sportsnetwork.com, both
of The Sports Network


Web site: http://www.sportsnetwork.com/
http://www.igconference.com/

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