There is huge money to be made in the gambling industry, in particular in low cost wagers where life-changing amounts of money can be won. The Irish are selling their National Lottery with a €600 Million price tag, and Minister Brendan Howlin has been warned that he should be compelled to introduce measures that will protect players from gambling addiction. This comes as a section of a social responsibility charter that the new private operator must be prepared to adhere to.

A Gambling expert has been advising both buyers and sellers in this new deal. This expert is of the opinion that the sale actually calls for new measure to be put into place. This is a very controversial sale of a licence which will allow the private operator to run this lotto for a period of twenty years.

At the moment, despite the price, any buyer would be taking a gamble. The new operations company would have to be able to increase both turnover and revenues substantially. Last year sales for the Irish Lotto dropped by 10.6% – down to €252.3 Million, so any return on investment for the new operator, looks particularly bleak, unless they can pump up the sales.

However with the need to increase ticket sales, a massive push into advertising would obviously be a necessity, and it is this that causes concern. When a lottery product and the amounts of money that can be won are advertised on a grand scale, this takes place amidst fears that vulnerable members of society may be drawn into purchasing tickets that they can actually not afford. Or that under-age gambling may take place online.

There are a number of online gambling concerns that have an interest in this Irish license, and this is chiefly due to the fact that the online market for it remains largely untapped. Gaming giant Gtech (Italian) has shown an interest, and have actually admitted that this aspect is its chief selling point.

Declan Harkin who is chief operating officer of Gtech has hinted that if their bid were to be successful, a roll-out of self-service points in retail shops, as well as a "significant refresh of technology support", would definitely be on the cards. However, present laws need to be relaxed before lotto purchases may be made online.
Currently a cumbersome system is in place in terms of player registration.

This system is intended to be relaxed under a new Lottery Act, and experts in gambling, and gambling problems, believe that as long strong social responsibility ethics are adhered to by operators of online lottery-style games. Problem gambling will not be inevitable.

The online gambling industry is still moving in the right direction, and this direction is up. In other words the industry is still generating a great deal of turnover, as well as showing positive growth. It is considered to be a mainstream industry, and has become vital to the financial welfare of quite a few small, as well as politically independent nations that are close to the UK.

These are the offshore sites where servers for online gambling sites are licensed and kept, which has had the knock on effect of investments in infrastructures which maintain sizeable internet operations. These are regulating and licensing jurisdictions which have opened their doors to the industry in return for lower taxes. The result of this is that most online operations – even the big guys like William Hill, have taken these ops out of the UK and re-located them to places such as Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Malts, Alderney, and more recently Jersey in the Channel Islands.

Small, politically independent states such as these have come to depend to a great extent on the taxes the industry generates, as well as the employment, and growth opportunities it creates. While the online gambling industry does have its ups and downs, it also has an astonishing ability to roll with the punches. Many of the well-established online gambling concerns have had to reinvent themselves. And have done so in their efforts to survive, but what about British land Bingo, it seems to be taking a turn for the worse?!

There have been some serious changed in the gambling industry when it comes down to British tax law. And the one industry that appears to be worst affected is that of bingo. New taxes have been imposed on certain activities run by these business, which sees a recent hike to 20% on slot games in bingo halls. This poses a serious threat to the industry as a whole, but is an even bigger problem for smaller concerns.

Things started to go pear-shaped for this industry around 2005, and since then 150 of these clubs have closed down.

There is a real concern that this game may go completely extinct, which is rather sad rally considering it has become a big part of British culture. We have the Chancellor of the Exchequer to thank for the demise of this Great British game, as things stand now George Osborne could be the one to go down in history for killing the game. Bingo employs 13 000 people, but this also seems to mean nothing to him.

It is no secret that the European Union finds the online gambling industry to be problematic . But the problems actually don’t lie with the industry, it is in the way EU countries just do their own thing with regards to trading regulations. The EU is committed to a policy of free trade within the Union, but there are all kinds of issues that come into play, so individual countries tend to make their own laws regarding the industry.

One of the chief concerns of many EU partner countries is the problem of match fixing. So, they attempt to put an end to corruption in sports by stopping activities such as online sports betting, and it is this that affects industry players. While the European Union themselves battle with the case of creating a unified, or rather, common, platform for operators in the Internet gambling biz.
The real problem seems to be that the gambling sector is vulnerable, so protection, as well as stamping out corruption is the EU’s main points of focus.

There has also been a great deal of deliberation surrounding inconsistencies in the rules that apply to online gambling ops within EU member nations. We have seen evidence of this in Belgium, Germany, France, and other member states. These states seem determined not to come to the party in terms of this industry.

Their actions have been seen in the light of a monopolistic approach, and this

goes against the basic mandate of the European Union – that fairness and free e-commerce is an integral part of the structure.

The European Commission has requested industry input, and responded with an action plan, however, this has made very little difference to the way in which certain countries respond. Despite the fact that Michel Barnier – the EC Commissioner for internal trade has called for member states to fulfil their obligations, they simply go their own way.

Apparently there are five areas in which increased cooperation is required, but Mr. Barnier has also mentioned that the EC is “not proposing EU-wide legislation on online gaming”. However, they are still proposing that a common protection principle be adhered to, as well as requesting that all member states follow an across-the-board set of actions.

It is obvious that both the EU and member states have concerns such as underage gambling, cheating in sports, and money laundering, but these issues should not be used as an excuse for monopolistic gambling practices to take place. Age verification technology and other tools to protect the vulnerable have become highly sophisticated – operators in regulated jurisdictions are visibly making use of these. However the new EC action plan wants advertisers to be more responsible too.

We have been seeing some incredible growth figures for the mobile gaming sector of the online gambling industry. It has become obvious that this sector has grown so fast and so quickly, due to the fact that mobile technology now offers the capability of entertaining gamblers on the go. Increased smartphone use is one of the biggest heralds for this boom, and mobile-friendly online casinos are taking advantage of the feeding frenzy.

Some pundits of this industry are telling us that the mobile gambling marketplace will be worth more than $100 Billion by the year 2017. This could be more, but online gambling concerns are banking on sharing $45 Billion in profits, if the market reaches this figure. As one can imagine, some serious business people are looking at this business rather seriously.

Now that smartphones and tablets have been blamed as being the key drivers for this increasing trend, researchers have been taking a look at these users. Currently in the UK alone – 62% of the population are in possession of a smartphone. This is an increase of 14.2% since October 2011. Combine this use with the fact that gambling online has also grown, and we see that the mobile sector is responsible for a massive amount of virtual gambling spend, and it is they who are sparking increased profits for operators. In fact the fastest growth sector has been seen in online, and in-play sports betting by mobile.

Currently 15% of the entire gambling sector of the UK is driven by mobile gamers. A smartphone or tablet is eminently portable, much more so than a laptop ever was. The smaller these devices are, the more desirable they are, and much of a smartphone is taken up by screen. This makes it easy to use to access a game, and the game is easily seen, with superior graphic quality.

We have mobile banking apps too, so, it hasn’t taken long for gambling operators to work out mobile payment systems for playing these games for real money, and winning real money prizes too.

Gone are the days where we had to get dressed up, travel, and pay through the neck to have a night out in a casino. We take our mobile phones wherever we go, so wherever we are is our mobile casino. Games and many apps are free to download, can be played for free or real money, and casinos offer a ton of incentives to get us to play these games. They even give away free money.

One of the reasons we say that the online gambling industry is a "mainstream" industry, is because of the size of the prize on the bottom line for operators. It is hardly surprising that the UK Government is re-visiting its taxation laws for this industry – during 2012 online gambling was worth more than £2 Billion; it is envisaged that this will grow monumentally. Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise hardly receives a share in this loot, as taxation mores are so tough that most UK operators provide these services to the UK-audience from White Listed, yet distant shores.

£2 Billion is a massive amount of money in an industry which grows, hour-by-hour, day-by-day, year-on-year. Now with mobile gambling being the new zeitgeist, Internet gaming is predicted to grow even more. Some remarkable growth percentages have been seen in this sector of the industry, especially during 2012, as more people get hooked up with a smartphone.

The leading gaming growth sector in the UK is currently real money sports-betting, and especially popular are the “in-play” wagers that can now be made from the convenience of a mobile phone. Just as an example – in the period 2011 to 2012, football betting has seen an increase of 69%. This makes it the second-most lucrative gaming market in the country, just a wee bit behind horse racing.

A recent study which revealed these result, also yielded other rather interesting results too. For example we now know that William Hill is in the lead in terms of market-share, but this does not necessarily mean they have the lions-share of the entire industry. 15% goes to William Hill, while Paddy Power, Betfair, Ladbrokes, and Bet365 each control the same at 11% each. 44% of the market is attributed to "other" operators.

Research is indicating that 29% of users who gamble online are using mobile devices, and smartphones to facilitate this form of entertainment. Searches for online gambling products from smartphones have also grown by 75%. This proves that the spirit of the times is for mobile gambling, and sport-betting is mostly what these users are looking for.

The Island of Jersey has now entered the race to become a licensee state. They are joining into the melee with territories such as the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Malta, Alderney, and one or two other well-liked destinations. With so much attractive competition, the UK Government has a hard task ahead of them if they think they might be able to attract operators back to the fair shores of Pudding Island.