“eMarketer”, a market research firm, reported that global online gambling revenues for operators of virtual casinos and bookmaking are expected to exceed ten billion dollars this year.  The report also noted that the ten billion dollars only represents the house cut (or the “vig”).  A prediction like, that for the house cut alone, is an indicator of the vast sum of money being spent at Internet gambling sites.  Based on the house cut estimates, the amount of money played at Internet gambling sites would have to be well over two hundred billion dollars. 

One of the reasons for the huge revenues is the growing popularity of online gambling.  According to Ben Macklin, an analyst at “eMarketer”, online gambling is no longer a pastime for just the few:  “Fueled by a poker craze, the growth of broadband, and television coverage, online gambling is quickly moving to the mainstream".

A large portion of that money is coming from the U.S. too, even though U.S. authorities consider online gambling to be illegal.   The “eMarketer” research showed that between twenty to thirty million U.S. Internet users visited online gambling or sweepstakes sites in 2005, a number that represents from 15 to 18 percent of all Internet users in the U.S.   In Europe, according to the report, roughly half that amount (14 million) of Internet users visited online gambling or sweepstakes sites, with the greatest number of users coming from Germany.   France and Sweden still top the list, however, when it comes to the greatest percentage of Internet users visiting online gambling or sweepstakes sites. 

The report also found that “US consumer spending on gambling is roughly 20 times the amount they spend on digital music downloads".   Macklin said that the main reason for the rise in the popularity of online gambling is the television coverage of poker tournaments and the 2.5 million dollar win by American online player Chris Moneymaker in the 2003 World Series of Poker.

"After phenomenal growth during 2003 and 2004, particularly from online poker, the online gambling sector is slowing, but that does not signal the demise of the sector," said Macklin.  
.
"For as long as there is gambling, there will be online gambling, and whether it is legal or not is irrelevant," Macklin added.

Posted on: November 26, 2005

Add This Gambling Article To:
Del.icio.us	Digg	Google	Spurl
Furl	Simpy	Y! MyWeb

Back to November 2005's archive
Back to latest News