To YouTube or Not to YouTube?

YouTube has become one of the hottest new technologies to hit the entertainment industry since the Apple iPod arrived on the scene. The popular web site has made at least one star into a superstar (Borat), ruined the career of one popular actor (Jason Richards) and looks set to make fundamental changes to the advertising and news businesses by allowing short video clips to circulate around the Web in a matter of minutes. Uploading video to the site is a simple one click process. Adding a clip to a blog or other web site is equally easy - just a matter of cutting and pasting a few lines of code. That makes YouTube a potentially invaluable tool for advertisers hoping to extend their reach.

Lottery commercials have long had a cult following with the public, thanks to clever spots that have allowed ad agencies to show off their best creative abilities. On the surface, social networking sites are an ideal way to create the buzz that lottery ad execs (and lotteries) dream of.

But where does that place lottery operators as they grapple with jurisdictional limits to their marketing? Unfettered distribution could invalidate the responsible advertising standards that the industry increasingly imposes on itself. And content creators may object to the reuse of material without compensation: La Française des Jeux had to pull TV ads from their website a few years ago when the actors filed for copyright infringement.

States can regulate gaming. Banks can starve unlawful casinos of cash. But can anybody regulate the myspace generation? And who would want to if they could?