Another major Brit gambling group has entered the competitive but
booming Internet poker market with the launch of Uk betting plc's
new online poker room this week, heralded by predictions that the
market could double in 2005.
Shares in the British smallcap were up 4 percent after it announced
that it had launched poker and an online casino on its European gaming
Web site Goldbet.com.
Gamblers lost $237 billion to gaming companies worldwide in 2004 and
will be losing about $277 billion a year by 2008, said a report on
Thursday by investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.
Online gambling has grown to $9.2 billion since its birth in 1995
and is forecast to produce a 22 percent compound annual growth rate
between 2003 and 2008, driven in particular by poker, said the report.
Sports betting represents 45 percent of total online gambling spending
with other gaming representing 32 percent, but both could be overtaken
by poker by 2008, if not earlier, it added.
Online gambling is becoming a booming industry in Britain, one of
the few jurisdictions where it is welcomed. "We're the
market that's embracing online gambling," said DKW analyst
Andrew Lee.
Online casino 888.com., widely expected to go public, recently estimated
the amount Britons are gambling over the Internet has increased more
than six times in the last year.