Analysts Predict a Bright Future For Online Casino Industry

19 Dec 2006

Merril Lynch, the respected analyst of the "The Register" publication had suggested this week that the online casino industry could be worth up to 270 billion pounds by the year 2015. Most other analysts agree that the figure is a bit optimistic, but there's no doubt that the online casino industry is growing at an amazing rate, as it is showing by far the fastest Internet industry growth to date. According to another publication, Gaming Public, the global revenues of the online gambling industry will reach 16 billion dollars in 2006, compared to 12 billion in 2005.

Another interesting figure, which only shows the enormous potential of the online casino industry, is that Europe's regular gamblers stake nearly 3.5 billion pounds a year, which makes for an average of 1000 pounds each. According to Gaming Public, the revenues generated by the online casino industry will grow to 22.7 billion dollars by the year 2010, which represents a 22% annual growth year. Although much lower than Lynch's expectations, those figures are not bad at all and should bring some enthusiasm to everyone in the business.

The main problem with all those prognostics is that no one can know for sure what will be the repercussion of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, and how it will affect the whole online casino industry. Many experts predict that the ban is not likely to be effectively enforceable, which means that the damage for the online gambling industry will only be minor. One way or another, only time will be able to tell who was right, and what will the online casino industry look like in a couple of years.

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