Massachusetts does not recognise a religious marriage ceremony performed without benefit of a state-issued marriage licence.

ECONOMIST: Gay marriage, debated

Games developer Zynga has taken the first step to apply for a gambling licence from the US state of Nevada.

BBC: Zynga seeks gambling licence from Nevada

Under the terms of the Nevada licence, players must be at least 21 years old and residents of the state.

BBC: Nevada opens doors on first US-based online casino

Under the Act, the Secretary of State, as well as British Telecom, could licence other operators to run telecom systems.

BBC: BT: From telegraphs to the internet

Yet rather than properly liberalising the market, the government may allow a duopoly after 2002, with the other licence going to the merged internal telephone networks of other state-owned firms, such as Eskom, the state electricity firm, and Transnet, the state transport group.

ECONOMIST: Telkom, the state telecoms monopoly, still has much to do

Alas this happy ploy is more or less confined to countries such as Sweden, where ministers resign for forgetting to pay television-licence fees, and members of parliament perch in tiny, state-owned bedsits while working in the capital: 72% of Danes and 66% of Swedes duly told a 2010 Eurobarometer poll they trusted national parliaments.

ECONOMIST: British distrust for politicians is peculiarly dangerous

Last week, for instance, the state of Saxony moved against Bwin, an Austrian betting firm with a grandfathered East German licence.

ECONOMIST: Gambling in Europe

Stephen Breyer, for example, fretted about the possible fate under the law of a jogger carrying only a driver's licence from New Mexico, a state that borders Arizona and used to issue licences to illegal immigrants.

ECONOMIST: Immigration politics

First, customers have to swipe their driving licence to prove they are 21, then they stand in front of a surveillance camera which beams their image to a call center where a state worker checks it against the licence.

FORBES: Names You Need To Know: Pronto Wine Kiosks