"Online Gambling About to Soar"

Britain has joined in the Internet gambling craze. This was recently stated in a recent report released by German investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, concerning online gambling. As many as 4% of adults in Britain have gambled over the Internet during the last two years. This is according to the Gaming Board of Great Britain. As online gambling enters the mainstream, this figure is expected to grow.

If we look even briefly at the history of online gambling, we see that it supports this projection. In the year 1996 only 30 online gambling sites could boast of annual revenues of 30 million dollars. But since then the online gambling industry has really taken off. This can be seen by the large number of online poker sites, as many as two thousand, and by the large revenues that have catapulted to an amazing 9.2 billion dollars annually. About half of this is derived from the United States. On the other hand, this easy access to gambling laced with ease and convince, has also led to some major total losses for the gamblers. That same report of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, estimates loses to online gaming companies worldwide, at a purported $237 billion. Loses are by the year 2008 are expected to reach approximately $277 billion a year.

Nearly half, or about 45% of Internet gambling activity is involved with sports betting. Other types of online gambling then account for another 32 percent. Analysts explain this high percentage of sport betting as being the result of improvements in broadband and cellular technology. These improvements have made it possible for gamblers to place their bets through the use of a cell phone or a hand-held computer. Overall, analysts are in agreement that a

tremendous potential exists for growth in online poker. Although this game is popular worldwide, analysts are in agreement that the greatest input comes from the United States. They also agree that online poker is quickly reaching the point where it can surpass sports betting, and will probably do so by 2008. Sportingbet, recently purchased the largest provider of online poker sites, Paradise Poker. It pegs the present market value of online poker as being about $1.5 billion dollars. Still all of the evidence points to are marked increase in this amount in the near future.