Online gambling has always been popular, but like all new trends the zeitgeist only lasts so long. Eventually things bottom out, and although this is a new industry, online gambling is not showing the same explosive growth it once did a few years ago. The bottoming out could be changing however, and any online gambling concern that is not set up and running with mobile gambling is going to miss out on new growth.

When they said a year ago that mobile gambling would be the next wave of massive growth, we don’t think anyone quite expected it to be as big as it actually is. Since 2011 exponential mobile growth has seen the biggest operators proudly displaying results that consistently show double digit escalation. This obviously makes gambling by mobile another huge opportunity – an opportunity as huge (if not bigger) than the inception of the internet.

Now, you might think we are only talking about opportunity in terms of the mobile gambling operator, this is not the case at all. In a market as sophisticated as say, the UK. There is massive potential for players as well. Why is this you might ask? Well because the more operators try and get into the game, the more competitive it becomes – the more competitive this form of gambling becomes, the better the prizes. Not only that, because of the massive potential for liquidity with so many punters enjoying gambling-on-the-go, the bigger prize pools, such as progressive prize pools, will grow more regularly into huge amounts.

Right now mobile gambling encompasses, sports betting (the most popular growth sector)slots, bingo, video poker, all kinds of casino games and even poker.

Paddy Power, Betfair, Unibet, William Hill, even Google and more are all looking forward to really raking it in. And with taxes for online gambling sites only due to fall into law in the UK, presumably by 2014, we’ll bet a penny to a pound that these businesses are smiling; in fact literally laughing their way to the banks once again.

What we, the player, has to look forward to is a great many more winning opportunities when we play by mobile or tablet, and what’s more we can do it – even if surreptitiously – under the table in a board meeting. Just think, one never ever need be bored again when shut inside with the board?!

Ever more innovative mobile gambling product will be delivered into this market, the bigger and better it grows. Even Bullet Business is taking advantage of the growth, and a Mobile Gambling Summit is planned for London later on in the year. Players and operators both are tapping into the tablet market, and moving into mobile.

Personally, we believe that gambling online will never be the same again. Developers are already talking about taking it to smart TV, in order to harness the largest prospect in gambling since the online boom, thereby increasing mobile penetration back into the home. We wonder what will be next?!

Over a decade ago, products such as Party Poker and Party Casino started providing the ability for punters to take a bet, and to do this online. At the time this industry was frowned up by the US Government, but they could not do much about it. Offshore websites were being licensed in Kahnawake, The Virgin Island and Caribbean territories and this kind of made them legal, but also untouchable.

However, the US Government got their thinking caps on and came up with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). This was promulgated virtually overnight and it effectively banned online gambling, by making payment transactions illegal through the auspices of an out-dated Wire Act from way back in 1961.

Now Nevada is the First US state to make online gambling legal, even despite the fact that UIGEA is still in force. The Department of Justice had a change of opinion on the basis of the act, and now interprets it as only online sports betting being illegal. The Federal Government has made it clear that States may decide themselves on whether or not to make online gambling legal.
Nevada has forged ahead and the first legal online gaming in the US will be online poker. Experts are of the opinion that Nevada is now equipped to lead the way with the US online gambling revolution.

Being a multi-billion dollar mainstream industry, the regulation and legalization of online gambling can have a huge business, and beneficial fiscal impact on the US economy. There is also the argument that online poker should be classified a game of skill rather than a gambling game, so, this makes it so much more attractive. If you think that since UIGEA was enacted – $72 billion has left the hands of online gamblers in the US and gone into offshore (foreign) pockets; Federal and state-wide coffers are losing out on a great deal of taxable revenue.

It is not easy to understand UIGEA, there are a ton of grey areas, but basically what it does is stop interstate wire exchanges of money. However, foreign money exchange is not a problem, although it’s becoming tougher as less of the reputable online casino will accept players from the US. While there is more than one way of skinning a cat, this becomes more complex as technology advances.

Gamblers like to play online, there have always been gambling games and a punter will bet on anything if they think they have a chance of winning. Basically, no matter how hard the US government buries their head in the sand, online gambling is not going to just go away. Prohibition has never worked and we see now that it never will. Nevada has the opportunity to get a leading edge in what ostensibly could become a very lucrative industry. All they have to do is keep leading the way. Battle it through the red tape and pave the way for other US states. Other states are going to want to hang onto their coat-tails.

Just like the Kindle has done away with the need for the paper-back novel (although books are still really nice, think of all the trees these devices save), dice and cards could also soon be a thing of the past. All you need to gamble online today is a mobile phone. Now iPhone together with Big Fish games, the very first virtual real money gambling games will soon be released on the i-operating system, and they are scheduled to be released in the UK.

We have all heard that Zynga is scheming its way into real money casino games online, but Big Fish has – believe it or not – beaten them at their own game. The UK debut will feature Self Aware Studio titles, powered by the Betable software engine. Big Fish acquired Self Aware in March of 2011, and also acquired one million (or thereabouts) active real money online gamblers.
The platform will be a first of its kind, features many familiar titles from Card Ace Casinos, and is slated to be available in the iTunes store, sometime in the next couple of weeks. Download the software and iOS devices will be able to give you Big Fish slots, Texas Hold ‘em, video poker, blackjack and roulette.

The company believes that being first in the market with their virtual product will give them the competitive edge. Betable have catered to the Europen market on mobile before, and this was a Betfair app. CEO of Betable – Christopher Griffin – said they couldn’t be happier with the Big Fish Casino app, but as well as these pay-for-play games, free version of Big Fish Casino will also be available for the non-gambling fraternity who like having a flutter without spending a penny. Also members outside of the UK will be able to play these games for free. It is available in 4 app stores including Amazon’s app store, Google Play, Facebook and Apple iTunes.

The online gambling marketplace is estimated to turnover approximately $32 Billion dollars, and is seriously growing. It is a massively lucrative market and more social gaming companies are looking into real money gambling. But by the same token, real money online gambling firms are taking a serious look at the social gaming marketplace.

Hasbro and Zynga have entered a partnership which sees the virtual and real world of gambling combine, and with this, the new Big Fish launch, we can only assume that Zynga will benefit from another company’s exploration of a newer and much wider horizon. Experts are of the opinion that social gaming companies should have explored this avenue far sooner. Zynga’s beleaguered share price might be indicative that the social gaming market could be bottoming out.

The bottom line at the end of this tale is that Big Fish is still a big fish, and if Zynga does not get something gainful going quite soon, they may well be left far behind.

While there has been no doubt about the fact that real money gambling online is here, and here to stay, and this is a well-entrenched industry in the UK; Facebook so far, has not wished to get in on the action. However, now there seems to be a reversal of roles, while this social media application with gaming capabilities wants in on the real money action; real money gambling sites want in on the social gaming aspect.

But that also having been said, Facebook have recently launched their first real money gambling app. They are betting on the British industry because it is more or less a sure thing, and they are hedging their bets even further, by putting their money on bingo.

Bingo has enjoyed massive popularity in Britain over time; first in the live gambling game, and more recently with online bingo. The new Facebook bingo is rather fetchingly called "Friendzy Bingo". Clever little play on words that!

This app allows users to bet on real money games, where obviously they win real money prizes. Although how good the prizes actually are remains to be seen as it is early days yet. Generally speaking the better liquidity (more money) a gambling game has poured into it, the better the prizes will be, and one thing Facebook has never had a problem with is raising a fan following. The more paying traffic there is, the better this bingo will be for all concerned.

CEO – Mark Zuckerberg is launching the product in the hopes that it will boost revenue – that much is obvious. So it is not like all the other virtual money apps, it is a true gambling app. Now UK Facebook users aged 18 to 80 and older can make gambling stakes in real British pounds, and expect to be paid winnings in these. According to the Financial Times the app was launched last Tuesday.
So far this global social networking giant has been precluded from the gambling sphere due to legal restrictions outside the UK. But this does not explain their slow up-take into the UK market. However, Clive Hawkswood of the Remote Gambling Association explains the move as being an obvious match for Facebook. This is chiefly because bingo is of the ‘soft gambling’ ilk, and has always had the reputation of working hand-in-hand with chat forums. Many people are driven to play online bingo by the fact that it is such a social game.

Slots will be coming to Bingo Friendzy in the not too distant future – one assumes they will see how Facebook fans take to the bingo games first. One of the biggest things going for it is the fact that the software platform is powered by Gamesys, an exclusive software brand which powers only a very few sites. Their biggest claim to fame being Jackpot Joy, and Sun Bingo, two of the biggest online bingo brands in the land.

William Hill could be taking a BIG gamble by taking on Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs Service, but then again taking BIG gambles is their business! The British Bingo industry has done this and won when Mecca went to European Union Supreme courts to support their contention that they were being over-taxed on ‘interval’ bingo games. It was worth the fight for Mecca (the Rank Group); we can’t remember the exact figure, but at the end of the day HMRS had to pay back over £36 million. This sum made a very nice difference to their bottom line in the year it was paid.

William Hill wants to challenge the Tax on "online" gambling profits – they are moaning about 15% – but we think they should count themselves lucky, this is what land operators have to pay out, and land bingo operators are required to pay out even more. 15% is the proposed tax level for online gambling businesses, and quite honestly, as they have had to pay no tax at all for more than ten years in the biz, what the heck is their problem?

We’ll tell you what their problem is – In the 2012 half year report, William Hill profits reached a whopping £68.9 million just for their online business. Who wants to pay out 15% of money like that, when they have previously needed to pay nothing at all? Taxation for this industry in the UK is only planned to fall due from the end of 2014, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer wants to raise approximately £200 million from online betting. We would assume that this amount also includes revenues from other forms of Internet gambling enterprises.

Virtually all of the large bookmaking and other gambling firms in the UK, which offer online services have moved operations to offshore sites such as Malta, Gibraltar, Alderney and Isle of Mann, in order to escape UK taxes. But if we think about it logically, while they are offering services to a UK audience and earning profits from this, surely they should be subject to some sort of taxation. We have to remember that there are only two sure things in life – one is death, the other is taxes, and there is no escaping the facts.

The company has already briefed their lawyers to build a case against the proposed taxation, which will be a "point of consumption tax". Lawyers that specialize in gambling law have warned that under European Law it is illegal to restrict free movement of goods or services for tax purposes, but this has not stopped countries such as Belgium and other European countries from jealously guarding their online gambling borders. Whether William Hill will be successful or not, based on these precedents and what has become tacit, remains to be seen. But whatever happens in the end, it seems that William Hill is taking no chances, and just like Baden Powell taught the Scouts – we should always be prepared.