Gambling News by Gambling Headquarters

The global gaming market yielded $258.3 billion in 2005. Online gambling brought in 5 percent, or $13 billion, according to the United Kingdom-based Global Betting and Gaming Consultants' 2005 report. Online gambling is one of the fastest-growing segments of the gaming market at a compound annual growth rate of more than 50 percent since 1998. The market is projected to reach $25.2 billion in 2010. But the United States is trying to shut it down to Americans. On Oct. 13, President Bush signed into law the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist attached to the Safe Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006. The UIGE Act prohibits unlawful Internet gambling by restricting gambling sites from accepting payments from U.S. residents. The Secretary of Treasury and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System will issue the regulations and enforce the act in a grace period of 270 days. The United States accounts for 47 percent of the global gross gaming yield in 2005 making it the largest market in the world. Some of the top offshore gambling and fee transfer sites have already pulled out of the U.S. market, including London publicly-traded companies, PartyGaming and its subsidiary PartyPoker, and financial services company Neteller. PartyGaming has 12 million registered players, including 84 percent, or more than 10 million, in the United States. Its PartyPoker Web site generates an average daily revenue of $2.5 million. "It's like they're just throwing away $2.5 million a day," said Bob Pajich, managing news editor of Card Player Media, a media resource producing CardPlayer.com and Card Player magazine with United States headquarters in Las Vegas and International presence in Europe. "I am surprised by all of the sites that have pulled out this early and they're mostly publicly traded sites who may have been forced to do this because of their image. I don't understand why they didn't just wait and see until the Treasury released its regulations." Online poker makes up 20 percent of the annual online gaming revenue behind online sports betting (36 percent) and online casinos (25 percent). Pajich said of the five major online poker sites - Poker Stars, Full Tilt, Ultimate Bet, Bodog and PartyPoker - only PartyPoker thus far has chosen to no longer accept U.S. players. About 10 offshore poker Web sites have banned U.S. players since the act has passed. "Some sites have already said they're not going to deal with U.S. players and that's going to hurt their bottom line," Pajich said. "For the other Web sites, they have been seeing record numbers every weekend for their tournaments and regular play."

Some offshore casinos and sports books did not ban U.S. residents because U.S. law does not regulate them.

Players have several options to deposit money into their casino and sports book accounts via Internet financial transaction Web sites based outside the United States. Western Union, money orders and e-checks through their checking accounts can be verified and set up directly like a debit card through casinos and sports books.

Neteller was the leading Internet financial services transactions Web site for U.S. players with more than $7 billion in annual transactions globally. But after the 270-day grace period, Neteller will no longer accept transactions from U.S. residents.

"That will be a bump in the road in the industry, but I just think there will be more ways and Web sites to pop up for U.S. residents to deposit funds," Pajich said. "It all depends on how easy it is for someone to figure out how to get funds into their online accounts and get around this law. It's a big wait-and-see game."

State's video poker revenue up 26 percent

Year-to-date revenue through September is up 26 percent at $167.9 million compared with $133.3 million in January through September 2005, according to the Louisiana State Police.

September revenues of $56.7 million are up 2.5 percent compared with $55.4 million in August.

Truck stops continue to be the state's largest moneymaker, generating $99.4 million through September, an increase of 21.5 percent from the $81.8 million reported year-to-date in 2005.

There are 6,264 video gaming devices in truck stops, which make up 46.6 percent of the 13,429 video gaming devices in the state.

Off-track betting establishments had the biggest revenue increase year-to-date at 152.8 percent up to $9.1 million from the $3.6 million reported in January through September 2005.

Bars had the second-largest increase at 36.1 percent up to $37.4 million reported through September from $27.4 million in the same period last year.