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Firm Developing Online Casino Says It's Severed Ties with Home Gambling Network

Mardi Gras, based in St. John's, Antigua, said it signed an exclusive agreement with Home Gambling early in 1999 to jointly develop and market an Internet casino site.

The company said it made payments to Home Gambling, as the agreement required. Then, Mardi Gras said, it hired a law firm that concentrates on patent and intellectual property law to conduct a due diligence review of the Home Gambling patent.

After the review, the company said, it terminated its relations with Home Gambling.

Robert G. Vernon, a managing director of Mardi Gras, told RGT Online that today's statement was issued because there's been "a lot of confusion among investment bankers.'

"We don't want anything to do with them' Vernon said of Home Gambling. He said he wished he could recover the money that his company had paid to Home Gambling. He didn't say what the amount was.

The Mardi Gras statement said its intellectual property is separate from and does not conflict with any patents of Home Gambling.

Vernon said Mardi Gras has applied for a gaming license in Antigua. The company hopes to begin accepting wagers at its site, www.wegamble.com, in August.

Mardi Gras plans an unusual online casino: It will use live dealers rather than computer programs.

"We don't like computers,' Vernon said. "Computers can be rigged. We want to offer an honest game of chance.'

Wegamble.com will open with 10 blackjack tables, 10 craps tables and "live' slot machines and bingo, he said. Employees in Antigua will actually be dealing the cards and throwing the dice, with the results entered into a computer for transmission back to the player.

Even the slot machines and bingo balls will be real, not virtual, Vernon said. Live "pullers' will drop the coins in the slots on behalf of the player.

The site also plans live entertainment. It won't accept bets from the U.S. until doing so is clearly legal, he said.

Vernon and his partner, Timothy D. Koehl, are Louisiana natives with backgrounds in the entertainment industry.

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