888.com the Online Casino Company announced at its Annual General Meeting held in Gibraltar on Wednesday that net gaming revenues rose 42 per cent to $84 million in the first quarter compared with the same period last year, with poker revenues of $39 million and casinos bringing in $45 million.
The group, which increased its active users to 319,374 over the first quarter period, added that the 17-day World Snooker Championship it sponsored drove up its exposure in a market dominated by its far larger rival PartyGaming.
The on-line gaming industry is still in it's infancy with many experts predicting that it will grow to $100 B per year within 15 years. Still the majority of gamblers are from USA where it's illegal. Just 19 per cent of US internet gamblers realize – or are willing to admit – that the activity is currently against the law, according to a survey carried out for the American Gaming Association AGA. The results also show that the number of online gamblers doubled in 2005.
The typical US internet gambler is under 40, college-educated, male, and more affluent than his fellow citizens, according to results, published this week. About four percent of the US population gambled online in 2005, according to Reuters.
U.S. Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and James Leach, R-Iowa, have again demonstrated their commitment to prohibiting Internet gambling in the United States, this time through an attempt at progressing Leach's bill in an unorthodox way.
On Wednesday evening, one day prior to a session in which the entire House of Representatives was to consider its version of the much discussed lobbying reform bill, the House Rules Committee met to decide which amendments would be made in order during consideration of the bill. At that meeting Goodlatte and Leach apparently filed Leach's HR 4411, The Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, as an amendment.
Their bid was denied, however, by House Rules Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif., and the House Republican leadership staff. Despite their efforts many insiders believe that on-line gambling will be regulated in the future, this concept unto itself seems like a good concept for a prop-bet at a Sportsbook... I wonder if any are giving odds?
