By Linton Weeks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 22, 1998; Page C05

Everybody knows there's a professional football game Sunday called Super Bowl XXXII. The sports fanatic knows that there's also an NBA game Sunday between the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz. But the serious bettor knows that there are places on the Web where you can bet on either game or on just about anything, including whether the Green Bay Packers will score more points than Michael Jordan.

On the eve of the greatest sports-gambling day of the year, the Internet is at the heart of a burning question: Should people be allowed to gamble online?

But there's a larger question: Isn't it fascinating how human beings are smart enough to build a global, instantaneous communications network, but dumb enough to keep forking over hard-earned bucks to bookies and casinos?

Arthur Rosenberg, chief operating officer of Venture Tech, an investment finance company in Herndon, believes more and more folks will be wanting to wager on the Web in the near future. Through a subsidiary company incorporated in the Marshall Islands, Venture Tech is opening an Internet gambling site.

"Our expectation," he says, "is that online gambling is going to be a multi-billion industry within five years ... People want to gamble."

Venture Tech reports that gamblers around the world drop about a trillion dollars a year and that some 40 million people are connected to the Internet. The Internet provides an endless variety of gaming opportunities -- everything from craps to mah-jongg to bingo to greyhound racing.

Here's how it's supposed to work: You download special software that allows you to play. Then you set up a debit account at the site -- usually a state or country in which gambling is legal. You sit in front of your computer and click away. There's even less excitement than in a casino, where at least you can hear wiry little ladies cursing and grown men groaning. Your winnings are added to your account, your losses are subtracted. You can play any time, anywhere.

There are scores and scores of gambling sites on the Web. Some, such as the Internet Professional Casino, offer Vegas-style games such as poker, roulette and slot machines. Others like Phoenix SportsTicket are primarily for betting on sports contests. At others, such as Intercasino -- a site operated under a gaming license issued by the government of Antigua -- you can do both. There's even an online gaming magazine: the Rolling Good Times Online.

Rosenberg is secretary of the Washington-based Interactive Gaming Council, a group of 60 or so companies. "We're looking to legitimize an industry," Rosenberg says. "The government is trying to vilify it."

Sen. Jon Kyl (R -- Ariz.) doesn't see it that way. Kyl has introduced legislation to prohibit online gambling. He believes that online sports betting already is illegal, under a law that prohibits interstate sports betting by phone or wire.

But his proposed "Internet Gambling Prohibition Act of 1997" would make all forms of Web wagering illegal. Kyl also hopes to keep gaming enterprises from taking advantage of new technology that doesn't rely on wires or phones -- satellites, for instance. Gambling, Kyl says, "can have a devastating effect on people and families and it leads to other crime and corruption if not strictly regulated."

Says Karen H. of the Gamblers Anonymous International Service Office, "We're not against gambling. We're just a group of men and women sharing our experience, strength and hope with each other that someday we will overcome a gambling problem."

Our advice: Never bet against Michael Jordan.

Linton Weeks can be reached at weeksl@washpost.com