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The first independent gambling guide to the best online
casinos!
Growth of Online Gambling
Times Online: Feb. 7th, 2005
By Rhys Blakely, Times
Online: One executive who works for a successful spread betting firm
last week shared with Times Online his pet theory on why online gambling
has become so popular. It was, he argued, because the generation who
entered the City as traders and analysts for investment banks in the
mid-1990s became so used to making large amounts of money in very short
spaces of time via the dotcom boom.
For this set, the idea of buying up a mass of freshly issued shares in
the latest e-business experiment, sitting back for the "pop" – the name
given to the sharp increase in value many internet stocks achieved on
their first day of trading – and subsequently cashing in became as
natural as drawing breath. The uniquely nervous rush – and potential
immediate gain – associated with playing a flush-draw hand online was a
natural extension of this.
He has a point. Smart poker players, through the internet, can rise
quickly through the ranks. The aptly named, but previously unknown,
Chris Moneymaker made $2.5 million at the Poker World Championships in
Las Vegas two years ago after putting up an initial $40 stake online.
But the theory that former dotcom kids’ appetites for quick bucks is
fuelling online gambling doesn’t quite stack up. For a start, there just
aren’t enough e-business-backing types around to explain the explosion.
According to Global Betting and Gaming Consultants, the analysts,
worldwide turnover on interactive gambling reached almost $70 billion in
2003 — up from $16.5 billion in 2000. By 2010, it is expected turnover
to pass $100 billion and the yield to hit $11.3 billion. Internet poker
now accounts for some £50 million a day – it has been some time since
anybody made that kind of money backing brand-new technology shares.
Moreover, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that many of the people
drawn to online gambling sites would not visit a casino – a charge
unlikely to be leveled at those happy – even in 1998 – to trade internet
stocks. For one thing, as many as 4 in 10 online poker players in
Britain are women – compared with 1 in 20 betters at a casino.
It is also interesting that some poker players do not like playing
online. For some, the buzz is still gained from picking up on a fellow
player’s "tells" - the changes in expression and demeanor that give away
what sort of hand a competitor is holding. Others prioritize sharing a
few drinks with friends over the game itself. The opportunities for both
of these are limited online. Also, don't forget that part of the reason
why poker has traditionally been popular with punters and not with the
casinos (who would rather see you losing big on the roulette wheel) is
because, in poker, you play against other players and not the house,
with its invariably in-built advantage.
Man’s appetite for placing money at the disposal of fate stems back to
time immemorial. People need very little persuasion to give their money
away on little more than a whim – and the internet makes it even easier
to do just that. If there was ever an event to prove this, it was the
bust which followed the dotcom boom.
Meanwhile, for all the giant numbers being banded around in discussions
on the potential of internet betting, the vast majority of punters will
end their careers in the red. Which makes you think that perhaps the
online gold rush of the 1990s is not such a bad analogy for the growth
in online gambling after all.
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