Missing Out On The Online Casino Gambling Boom - 12-29-05

December 29 - The United States in many ways is losing out on the online gambling boom. Banks, investors, and online casino operators in countries like the United Kingdom are cashing in, while their US counterparts can only sit back and wonder about what could have been...

During my annual office clean out (it's not a pretty sight I tell you), I came across a story that was printed in Time magazine earlier this year. Needless to say, the story leads with the fortunes made by individuals like the directors of Party Gaming. Party Poker currently has over 1 million registered users and the vast majority of them are in the US, which is quite ironic as online gambling is technically speaking still illegal in the US. Party Poker listed on the London Stock Exchange and the rest, as they say, is history. Many others followed with listings by Leisure & Gaming PLC (formerly VIP Management Services) Empire Online and the online casino behemoth, 888 Holdings. Again, the irony continues. These companies make the bulk of their profits from US customers, and in the eyes of the federal government it is illegal.

Analysts (funny enough UK based ones) are forecasting strong growth in the industry, specifically in the next five years where they see the total take from online gambling sky rocketing to $22 billion, regardless of legal difficulties. Some banks and companies like Yahoo and Google have given in to the pressure exerted by the DOJ, by either banning financial transactions or advertising.

Across continental Europe, many state owned gambling corporations are feeling the pinch as their customer flock to offshore betting and gambling sites.

Some estimate that the US is losing out on as much as $7 billion per annum through not legalizing gambling online.

Numerous initiatives are in place to either ban online gambling outright, or to create a legal framew3ork to regulate it, but none as yet have any real momentum.

2006 will be interesting, but the general sentiments seem to be that there will be no significant movement as far as the legal issues in the U are concenred.

Send To A Friend

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