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Monday, Nov 9, 2009
A new wave of gaming sites reward shooters with cash. Gambling regulators are not amused.
Aug 21, 2003 | James Rogers is a stay-at-home father by day. After hours, he makes money as an assassin. Rogers, a 33-year-old from Buford, Ga., an out-of-the-way town he jokingly describes as "basically nowhere," is one of thousands of first-person shooter (FPS) addicts nationwide signing on to new gaming sites that allow gun-crazed video gamers to kill for cold cash.
In the past, gamers had to play on public servers for nothing but bragging rights. Cash could only be won at national tournaments hosted by gaming publications and software companies. But now players can wager 24/7 at sites such as Ultimate Arena and YouPlayGames.com. "My wife calls me a dreamer," says Rogers, who plays Activision's "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" at YPG. "But this is exactly the kind of thing that I'd want to do for a full-time job."
Though he's not banking significant coin just yet and his wife is a little frustrated with his obsessive four to eight hours of daily play -- she just doesn't get it sometimes, he says, incredulously -- Rogers is certain that it's only a matter of time before he's paying rent with his winnings. "She bitches at me a lot. It's hard," laughs Rogers, who's in charge of their 7-year-old son during the day while his wife sweats it out managing a nearby Wendy's. The way it is now, he makes just enough to pay "a couple bills a month. But I tell her it's like when kids started riding skateboards or doing BMX. It started as fun, but later turned into a moneymaker. The thing is, if I wasn't playing I'd probably be watching TV."
YPG was the first kill-for-cash site of its kind. Launched last April with the World War II-themed "Return to Castle Wolfenstein," it heralds a new generation of gaming sites that, though legal, are sure to test the murky territory of federal gambling laws as they grow in popularity. In its first four months of business, YPG has racked up 18,000 registered users, and Ultimate Arena, launched in June, already has 10,000.
Chris Grove, executive director of YPG, lives and runs the company on the endlessly sunny island of Antilles, just off the coast of Venezuela and -- surprise -- out of reach of U.S. legislators. Along with a few islands in the Caribbean, Antilles is headquarters to many other online casinos, not to mention a handful of Fortune 500 businesses there to escape Uncle Sam's heavy taxes.
"As a big gamer myself, I'm really into the world that exists outside of reality," opines a dreamy Grove, 31, who had a previous life as an online casino entrepreneur but who says he's been a huge shooter fan for years. "YPG allows players to fulfill their offline fantasy online and actually make some money doing it."
Ultimate Arena set up shop in Menlo Park, Calif., and hosts a slew of big-title FPS games including "Counterstrike," "Unreal Tournament," "Unreal Tournament 2003" and "America's Army," a government-produced game that no doubt adds a certain amount of credibility to the emerging platform. Plus, its chief gaming officer is Dennis "Thresh" Fong, a professional gamer in his own right. After becoming the world champion of "Quake," "Quake 2" and "Doom," winning thousands of dollars at tournaments and a slick red Ferrari (which he still drives), Thresh has picked up a prickly -- not to mention envious -- fan club.
"I get hundreds of e-mails a day from people talking garbage and saying they want to take me on," says Thresh, 26, who founded Ultimate Arena with two other young entrepreneurs. "And I always wished I could say to them, 'Are you willing to put high bucks on a game' -- which wasn't a reality until we put up Ultimate Arena."
That's the nature of these gamers. They're hardcore. It's more than entertainment. It's an ego thing, and they don't take losing easily. Which makes the cash element an interesting addition to their world. Call it the wild card.
