A Vancouver entrepreneur who has been programming computers since he was 11 has teamed with gambling tycoon Stanley Ho to launch an on-line casino called DrHo.com.
Chris Piché, 28, chairman and chief executive officer of Vancouver-based Eyeball.com Network Inc., says the offshore site, expected to go live some time this summer, will let gamblers play games such as blackjack, poker and roulette in real time, with live dealers.
The site, previewed this weekend at a electronics trade fair in Los Angeles, is built around technology developed by Eyeball.com that lets personal computer users interact in real time over the Internet. Players in jurisdictions where such gambling is allowed can use credit cards to pay. In Canada, a police spokesman said that although it may be technically illegal to play on such sites, it would be hard to successfully prosecute. "There's nothing in place for that to happen now."
The venture puts Eyeball.com in the middle of the controversial business of Internet gambling, which is illegal in some jurisdictions, including Canada and the United States. Many operations are based in countries such as Costa Rica and Antigua.
Mr. Piché, who was admitted to university at the age of 13 before going back to finish high school with his classmates, says his company is concerned only with the infrastructure of the site, and that operating legalities are left to Mr. Ho's company.
"From our perspective, in our licensing agreement, there is a requirement that DrHo.com can not use our technology to support any illegal transactions."
Details of the licensing agreement between the two parties were not disclosed.
A spokesman for DrHo.com was travelling and not available for comment yesterday.
But the Web site promoting the new venture makes it clear the virtual casino hopes to capitalize on the reputation, and the success, of Mr. Ho's land-based operations.
He has a monopoly on the busy casinos in Macau, the former Portuguese colony that went back to Chinese control last year. The monopoly is up for review in 2002.
The DrHo.com Web site features red-and-black graphics and biographical information about Mr. Ho that emphasizes a rags-to-riches background and tales of derring-do that seem chosen to appeal to the gambling set.
One story relates how Dr. Ho -- the title comes from an honorary doctorate -- escaped from pirates in the 1940s when he "ran a cargo boat that ran through the mouth of the Pearl River, a dangerous area infested with Japanese troops and pirates."
Mr. Piché says the site represents only one of many licensing agreements that Eyeball.com, founded in 1996 as Infranet Solutions Ltd., hopes to reach as it moves into commercializing products that he and his colleagues have been working on for the past few years.
Mr. Piché, who holds a computer science degree from the University of British Columbia, met Mr. Ho after an acquaintance introduced him to one of Mr. Ho's employees, who was looking at launching an on-line casino.
"What they had was the reputation that they have developed from many years of gaming, and Dr. Ho's personal name and reputation. What they were lacking was technical expertise."
Since beginning work on the project two years ago, Mr. Piché has travelled to Macau to visit Mr. Ho's biggest casino, the Lisboa.
Before he began work on DrHo.com, Mr. Piché's knew only that Mr. Ho was involved with gambling and owned some property in Vancouver.
Mr. Piché said Mr. Ho is keen on the Internet venture, and was supportive during development.
Mr. Ho "is very concerned with the players' -- or end users' -- experience," Mr. Piché said. "He might not understand technology and how it works, but he does understand the consumer and what the consumer wants."
Wendy Stueck