LONDON -- Chuck Greene here, back from the 3rd annual Internet Gambling Symposium in London with a mixed bag of news and gossip for you:

In an otherwise neutral presentation, new Starnet CEO Meldon Ellis unveiled Starnet's plans to award a "seal of approval" to their licensees as confirmation of the fairness and honesty of their games. Of course, the notion of Starnet, a company mired in legal problems, giving itself a "seal of approval" brought a few chuckles from the audience and sarcasm from an FBI agent I spoke with later that day. Not exactly what the industry has in mind when it talks about "self-regulation".

Can you imagine playing a few hands of blackjack on your mobile phone while waiting for a bus or train? That exciting new technology is coming our way and Sweden's Net Entertainment aims to be at the forefront. Douglas Roos filled me in on his company's plans to provide blackjack and other casino games for mobile phones using WAP (wireless application protocol). I'll have more information on this exciting new technology in a future WINNERonline article.

Detective Sergeant Steve Clegg of the Illegal Gaming Enforcement Unit in Ontario, Canada made it clear that, as the law now stands, Internet gambling is not legal in Canada and his Unit is definitely interested in anyone operating an Internet casino in Canada -- especially if they're taking bets from Canadians.

Also, it's Clegg's interpretation of the law that it's illegal for Canadians to place real money wagers at Internet casinos, though I'd be shocked if we ever see any individual citizens prosecuted, and I'm definitely hoping I won't be the first.

Representatives of Australia, Antigua and South Africa all made their bids to entice prospective online casino operators to bring their servers to their shores. Antigua certainly presented an appealing argument, pointing to relatively low license fees ($100,000), quick approvals and experience in the land-based casino industry. High taxes and slow application processing are definitely keeping some operators from pursuing Internet gaming licenses in Australia. In the case of South Africa, laws still need to be changed before the country can be considered Internet gambling-friendly.

A pair of online gaming companies came to the conference ready to showoff their casino software. I took Online Gaming Systems' (ticker symbol OGAM, formerly AIEE) Shockwave casino games for a spin and, although the games look good and seemed to play smoothly, I question whether Shockwave will ever be a preferred method of delivery for Internet gambling. To date we have not seen a truly successful Shockwave casino on the Net. Java, yes. Download, yes. But Shockwave?