American ban hits future mobile gambling revenues

That's down by $6.4 billion from the company's own prediction just over six months ago. And the USA's clamp-down in online gambling is to blame, says report's author, Bruce Gibson.

"Following the tightening of legal barriers to all forms of online gambling in the USA we decided to revisit our market forecasts as clearly the environment had changed," Gibson commented.

"We have certainly dramatically cut back forecasts for the development of the North American market."

The ban shifted the focus to the markets of Europe and Asia Pacific. These are now expected to contribute over 80 per cent of the total value.

Given an estimated $665 million worth in bets placed in 2006, Europe is presently the largest market for mobile gambling. However, it is forecast to be overtaken by the Asia Pacific market by 2008, which is in turn expected to reach over $6.7 billion by 2011.

In terms of type of mobile betting, sports betting is currently the largest sector, but lotteries are forecast to take the top spot by 2010, the researcher reckons. µ

L'INQ
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