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.

For years we have been seeing exponential growth in the online gambling market, and a recent report released in the UK only confirms this for us yet again. Since 2008 when £1.27 billion was the number, this industry has grown to be generating a pretty impressive £2 billion in 2012. This is an 80% revenue growth. Internationally the business is worth a whopping £30 Billion.

William Hill claims to hold the largest market share in this UK industry. They are certainly one of the “Betting Giants” in the bricks and mortar biz, where online they control approximately a 15% share. This does not seem like a huge percentage in the bigger scheme of things, but the other large betting brands fall behind by 4% and more. This is quite a big deal when we are looking at figures in the Billions of pounds range.

The most dominant revenue spinner in the UK online gambling market place is sports betting, this has been the case for quite some time. It is also the fastest growth sector, with a high percentage of bets being placed from mobile phones – mostly smartphones. Online/mobile sports betting makes up for a total of 44% of the entire online gambling industry in this country! It has grown by a massive 102%, and is estimated alone to be worth £1 billion!!

Because the industry is such a massive revenue spinner, we have previously reported that the UK Government also wants to get in with a chance to win. Although nothing is concrete as yet, they are contemplating changing the law to lower taxes for online operators. We think this is a case of too little – too late. Gibraltar does not – they are resisting changes to UK Gambling Laws, and understandably so. They stand to lose a huge slice of this industry should UK developers, and operators up and leave from their shores.

Gibraltar has tried to ensure that the EU encourages the UK to drop new draft Gambling Tax Legislation. The Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association have even threatened legal proceedings should the new laws ever be enacted. The current UK daft proposals could see significant changes taking place, including removing “White Listing”, as well as requiring all offshore operations to be secondary licensed to offer gaming to residents in the UK.

Gibraltar is an island state that is White Listed which means, they enjoy status as a recognised UK gambling jurisdiction. If White Listing status was removed, taxation was dropped, and or secondary licensing became required, the well-establish Gibraltar online gambling industry might suffer quite significantly.

Despite the fact that Zynga is essentially a US company, the US online gambling industry has hardly even reached the infancy stage. It is not legal at a Federal level, and only two states have so far made online poker legal, with a vague possibility that casino and other gambling activities, may become legal sometime in the future. Zynga however, had to change or fade into obscurity, so, the obvious choice was to change. They threw their lot in with online gambling giants bwin.party in October 2012, and have now opened UK-facing real money online gaming sites.

The launch was scheduled for yesterday (at the time of writing), and we have taken a look at the screens-shots, things are looking good.

These brand new sites are the first evidence of the bwin.party/Zynga partnerships, comprising of both a poker and an online casino website. These are both real money gaming platforms, aimed at players in the UK, aged over 18years. The casino features a full suite of approximately 180 games including classic table games such as blackjack, roulette, and slots, amongst many more.

At one time the Zynga brand was the leading provider of social gaming services in the world. But with this new and exclusive partnership, it brings together social gaming expertise, with the owners of blue-chip assets. We are expecting this aggressive move into the real gambling space to be a product of very high quality, and apparently so too do shareholders – stock prices for the company have increased by 50% after a shocking drop during 2012.

The company posted massive losses, and a now a new executive pay scheme basically doubles the salaries of various key executives Marc Pincus himself is on a salary of $1 per annum. He has obviously made more money than he will ever need already, and this is a fabulous gesture to prevent a brain drain. Top brass will have the potential to maximize performance bonuses, while he offers his services for just about free of charge.

According to news reports, the poor performance of the firm led to losses of game designer Brian Reynolds, Dan Porter, CEO of Draw Something (OMGPOP), and CFO Dave Wehner. The new salary scheme, plus Pincus’ sacrifice should have the desired effect, while the new real money gambling websites have resulted in a show of confidence in Zynga products. It also helps that they have partnered with bwin.party – the biggest Stock Exchange listed online gambling concern in the world. It looks like this year is getting off to a much better start.

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.

It is not the first time we have heard mention that tax Cuts could be looming for British online gambling ops. It is also no secret that most of these operational companies have joined the exodus to more temperate climes. Most UK online gambling concerns, even the BIG guys such as William Hill, long ago ran away to "White Label" shores such as Malta, Gibraltar, Isle of Man and Alderney.

However, this does not prevent large operators from offering this form of virtual entertainment to a UK-facing audience. Therefore the UK Government needs to find a way to bring some potential tax pounds back to the country. The best and most obvious way to do this would be to offer tax cuts. But will the Government actually enact this – that is the multi-million pound question?!

If we think about it logically, gambling is a numbers game, but then so again is collecting tax. So, we ask you a simple question, would you rather have 5% on millions of pounds of potential income? Or would you rather have 15% of nothing? It doesn’t take rocket science to see that online gambling firms have left the country to take advantage of tax shelters for very obvious reasons.

Apparently now Government Ministers are seeing the madness in the tax situation, it has taken the longest time; and is hoping to encourage operators to base themselves in, or return to Britain.
One thing that is for certain – IS – online gambling is going nowhere at all, and unprecedented growth is being seen in this industry still. Mobile gambling growth using Android, iPhone, iPad, and other tablets, and smartphones, is becoming an off-the-wall trend. This kind of growth in popularity and spending is just too good to resist not getting a share.

While the Government in the UK, mulls over the idea of tax cuts on revenues from this massive growth industry, the Governments of Alderney, Gibraltar, Isle of Mann, and so on, are all cashing in on what has become a mainstream industry. These territories are also cashing in on the perks that work hand-in-hand with healthy industry – job creation for example.

Rumour has it that taxes in the UK will be cut from 15 to 10%, but we don’t really know if 5% would make all that much of an impression. 10% does bring it in line with some other territories, but whether this will be incentive enough, still remains to be seen. The wheels of law-making turn slowly, and we all know that money likes speed. Perhaps a little less "mulling", and a little more action might be required.