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MARK AUSTIN THOMAS: Casino giant Las Vegas Sands is launching an online gaming site in Britain. This follows a crackdown on Internet gambling in the U.S. From London Stephen Beard has the story.

STEPHEN BEARD: Las Vegas Sands is planning to launch its first online gaming site in the UK next year.

The move will infuriate Britain’s Internet gambling companies. This year Congress made it illegal for American residents to gamble online with their credit cards. And that measure, at a stroke, destroyed a large slice of the British online industry’s business.

The move by Las Vegas Sands is clever says Roger Blitz of the Financial Times. The casino giant could be anticipating some changes back home in the U.S.

ROGER BLITZ: They can see the point whereby the ban in the U.S. can overturned, online gaming can therefore be regulated in the U.S., and that will put them in a pole position to exploit those markets.

Some observers believe the Democrat-controlled congress will now set up a commission to review the issue of online gaming in America and the ban will then be lifted.

In London, this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.