Business Travel; A casino operator's dream: potential gamblers who may be bored and are unable to walk away, by PAUL BURNHAM FINNEY, May 8, 1996

IT was a sure bet that gambling in the skies would be the next seat-side diversion in airline cabins, and now it is happening -- with computerized gambling scheduled to begin aboard Swissair's 16 MD-11's and 5 Boeing 747's by November. Two small carriers are also going for gambling: Debonair Airways, a London-based start-up carrier that wants its BA-146's to be "the Southwest Airlines of Europe," and Oasis International Airlines, a Madrid charter company that flies Airbus 310's to the Caribbean, South America and the Far East.

Naturally, it took a company based in Las Vegas, Nev., Interactive Flight Technologies Inc., to get in-flight gambling up and running. It has simply adapted what's already on the Strip, Fortunet's digitized games, to the confines of airline cabins. Thanks to digital technology, which eliminates tapes, the I.F.T. system also features video-on-demand with up to 60 selections, depending how many rental fees an airline wants to pay.

With I.F.T.'s touch-screen video, passengers will be able to play the slots, poker, blackjack, lotto, keno or bingo after one swipe of a credit card. There is a limit of $350, set by Visa and other card issuers, that a passenger can bet or lose, but winnings have no cap. What a gambler wins -- or loses -- shows up as charge card credits or debits.

The casino's earnings? In Swissair's case the earnings from bingo, keno and lotto -- the games it will offer passengers -- will go to the Swiss national lottery, which supports charities and cultural organizations.

High-flying gambling isn't as new as you might think. In the mid-1980's, for instance, there were chartered gambling flights between Melbourne, Australia, and Hobart, Tasmania's capital. These days you can play bingo on some flights operated by Colombia's Avianca. And Virgin Atlantic offers Nintendo betting games, but, as a spokesman, Richard d'Ambrosia emphasized, "for points, not money."

Initially, the new casinos aloft will be limited to foreign airlines. The Department of Transportation prohibits gambling on United States carriers, despite the boom in legalized gambling in many states. The department carries the fine print to the point where American carriers can't even allow gambling on international routes. It can also prevent a foreign carrier like Swissair from landing at United States airports if there's gambling on its trans-Atlantic flights.

"European and Asian airlines are excited about getting into gaming," said Steve Fieldman, I.F.T.'s vice president for business development. "Once those fastidious Swiss engineers have checked out our system, you don't need anymore due diligence."

Why is Oasis one of the pioneers? "After the Chinese," Mr. Fieldman said, "the Spanish are the biggest gamblers in Las Vegas."

The New Gnomes of Zurich

"The Swiss franc is killing us," said J. Philippe Jaussi, who was in New York last week to drum up business for his Hotel zum Storchen in Zurich. At the current exchange rate a room overlooking the Limmat River costs at least $260 a night. "Corporate travelers are so watchful about their expense accounts these days," Mr. Jaussi said. "They cover Zurich and Geneva in the same day just to save on hotel bills. Or they stay in Lucerne, where it's cheaper."

Does anybody visit Zurich just for pleasure? "They're not just looking at the Chagalls and Miros in the Kronenhalle Restaurant," he said, smiling. "They're all looking over their bank accounts or seeing their insurance companies. But it's a beautiful season now -- with the first white asparagus from Cavaillon in the Rhone Valley. It's on every Zurich menu."

Mr. Jaussi's 600-year-old building, originally a guild house, is rapidly adapting to the 1990's. "People are living on efficient time," he said. "So every room now has a plug for a modem. When a Westinghouse team stayed for four weeks, we installed an on-line computer system. They were always in touch with home base."

"You can call an AT&T number without a surcharge from the Storchen," he added. "Some hotels block wireless phones -- you can do that, you know. We don't. We discourage people from using cellulars in our dining room. But we don't mind if they're outside in the square phoning to get their call through." (Credit: The New York Times)