THE REGISTER Online gambling poised to pull $528bn – US shuns cash cow By Burke Hansen in San Francisco Tuesday 12th December 2006
Internet gaming is now the fastest growing segment of internet commerce, according to a report from Gamingpublic.com, an industry trade publication. Revenue in the sector is growing at a rate of 22 per cent per year.
Gamingpublic.com cited a Merrill Lynch study that concluded the global internet gaming market could reach – wait for it – $528bn annually by 2015.
Although the market as a whole is currently estimated by most analysts to be between $12bn and $30bn per annum, and overall growth is strong, fallout from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act passed by the US Congress last summer continues to plague the industry. Sportingbet PLC, one of the leading British companies in the gaming industry, recently posted a $471m loss as a result of the closure of its American operations.
After its CEO, Peter Dicks, was detained in New York by American authorities, Sportingbet PLC unloaded its American operations for a mere $1.
Online gambling currently accounts for only about 3 per cent of the global gambling market.
Once again, Yggdrasil Gaming has proven that they have earned the right to call themselves the innovators and game changers of the online casino industry. The company has been given the prestigious Innovator of the Year award for the third year in a row.
How Yggdrasil Took Home the Title
Several factors worked together in Yggdrasil's favor this year. First, the judges were highly impressed by the company's open platform initiative, Yggdrasil Game Server, or YGS, Masters.
A new study in Iowa by the Racing and Gaming Commission projects if lawmakers choose to legalize online poker within the state, operators could make between $13-60 million dollars a year.
The report goes on to say that if poker operators would be levied the same tax level that is currently being levied to most of the state-licensed riverboats and racetrack-casinos that the state gambling revenue would increase $3 million and $13 million annually.
PricewaterhouseCoopers recently released the results of a study they conducted for UC Group, which is an online payment service company, concluded that the USA could stand to earn nearly $52 billion over the course of 10 years. How? It’s simple – by regulating and taxing online casinos. Easy enough, right?
Not really, but we’re getting there. Barney Frank is due to submit a bill as early as March to start the process of repealing the UIGEA, which was passed in 2006.
