http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=58738
--- Comment #1 from Rosanne DiMesio dimesio@earthlink.net --- Our Debian and Ubuntu packages are still "old WoW64" builds, so yes, they require installing the i386 packages along with the amd64 ones. While your dummy packages may satisfy the installer, they will also break any apps that require the 32 bit libraries under old WoW64.
I have thought about switching to "new WoW64" packages for newer versions of Debian and Ubuntu, and probably will do so at some point. However, I do not plan to switch over the packages for existing distros, as new WoW64 does not work at all with 32 bit wineprefixes, and many of our users have those.