While the word gimcrack might be a bit of a misnomer for devices such as iPhones, Androids and iPads, these portable devices are gewgaws of a sort. They are the latest zeitgeist for fans of fashion, and as a result are spreading all over the world. With the greater mobility, and fantastic technology, e-gambling activity is also increasingly on the rise.

Global Betting and Gaming Consultants (GBGC) are industry experts; it is their contention that the mobile industry is expanding rapidly. But they are not the only ones who see this, we can see it by just looking at how many online gambling firms are getting more and more mobile apps up and running, so, there must be a huge demand. We also see it in the numbers that the big companies such as William Hill, Paddy Power and others are releasing in terms of mobile growth. Honestly speaking, gambling analytics are great, but it is already clear we see increasing levels of demand.
Warwick Bartlett who is CEO of GBGC says that online gambling offers a good value for money entertainment option for millions of consumers. Something else we already know.

The powerhouses of online gambling are and have been enhancing revenues by adopting mobile gambling applications for a while; the evidence exists that what they are doing is good for business.
Smartphone gambling is transactional entertainment purely. Players are hugely excited by the fact that they can enjoy access to games with high prizes, switch from casino to casino with anonymity, and take advantage of great bonuses, as well as play lots of fun games. They also know that if they want a properly social casino experience, all they need to do is go to their nearest land casino. The online and live gambling business is two totally different channels; just with similar themes.

Betfair for example was one of the pioneers of mobile gambling, and they have reaped the benefits of their foresight – right from the beginning. They are the biggest online betting community globally – known as a betting exchange – and despite good earnings in the mobile market are showing a decline in share price. Core revenues for this company were up to £91.6 million, an increase of 13%, with the biggest growth trend showing in sports-betting. Apparently half of all their customers in the UK and Ireland have placed a bet by mobile during the first quarter of 2012. This is a volume of bet increase of a massive 114%.

It is like we said earlier, we just have to look at this type of performance and it becomes simple to draw the assumption that online gambling will go mobile for a large majority of fans. Rocketing revenues are not only being declared by Betfair; the biggest and many of the smaller brands in Britain and Europe are showing these increasing trends. Keep your eyes peeled too, there is strong evidence to suggest that things in mobile gambling are going to get a lot more interesting over the next couple of years.

Historically it is a fact that prohibition does not work, in particular prohibition does not work in countries where politics dictate that people supposedly have the freedom of speech, freedom to information, freedom of association, and so on. The USA is a country where its citizens supposedly have these freedoms. In fact they call it "the land of the brave and the home of the free" in their very National Anthem.

Millions of Americans however, still gamble online. They do this at offshore sites and billions of dollars go into the coffers of what could be called unscrupulous websites, although some are quite above board – they are still offshore sites. The Government collects no tax revenue because the industry is not regulated, and the American Citizens who gamble at these sites, do so at even greater risk. In other words, they have very little to fall back on in the form of consumer protection.

Now that state-wide momentum is growing to legalize "intrastate" online gambling, the Presidential elections are also just around the corner, and this is where we get to the prohibition factor. Now that momentum is building in the fight "FOR" online gambling, we get statements in the news from the Republican party that online poker will be banned. This despite the fact that a recent court ruling from a NYC judge had the game declared one of skill.

Unfortunately, progress dictates two steps forward, and occasional steps back, this is the way of the world, and also the human condition. What is even more unfortunate is the fact that because prohibition does not work – millions of Americans will continue to play poker and/or gamble online. And by the same token, this money, which could be generating tax revenue, will still pour out of the country.

It is a well-known fact that the USA is cash-strapped. Every state is short of funding, and instead of looking at innovative ways to stimulate the economy, the Republicans seem to be determined to stand on moral high ground and send the United States even deeper into debt.

Online gambling is a proven money-spinner, and with mobile gambling taking off in popularity like the proverbial rocket-ship; this industry is going to grow from a multi-billion dollar industry; to a multi-multi-billion dollar industry. One of the most dynamic things about the online gambling business, is it has proven to be recession-proof. Not many businesses can boast of that.

While Republicans want to make the Internet ”Family-Friendly”, perhaps they do not realise that the Internet is a Global phenomenon, not just an American convenience that they can manipulate as they see fit. It is up to parents to ensure that their internet access is family friendly, not up to the US Government to decide what family friendly is. The government needs to stick to the bigger issues at hand such reducing the Chinese debt, we hardly think online gambling needs to be banned in the light of this.

I have always maintained that when it comes down to problematic situations, people are the problem, not the situation. So, as far as problem gambling is concerned, people are the problem, not the gambling game. This little story only goes to prove my point even more, it tells how an Oldbury resident with a problem blew more than £4k of his neighbours’ money.

Thousands of pounds were entrusted to 28 year old John Rourke, of Oldbury, however apparently, Rourke could not be trusted. The courts heard how he was given £14,272.96 by fifteen of the residents of Henderson Court, while they switched property management firms. The property company was responsible for the up-keep of their maisonette units. They were not happy with the existing service. Over £9,000 was transferred but he frittered away the rest playing at online gambling websites.

Despite the fact that his neighbours badgered him to hand over the rest of money to Barclays Property Services for more than two months, no money came to light. Basically all they wanted to know was what happened to the rest of the money. He simply blamed the banks; not a difficult thing to do these days saying they were the ones making mistakes with the transfer. The total amount of the shortfall was £4,891.08, the Magistrates Court was told.

Eventually he admitted the theft to investigators say, and has also since moved to another address. The greedy gambler who inadvertently gives a bad name to online gambling, was eventually handed a twelve-week sentence and told to pay back the amount in full as compensation for the loss. He is now under supervision with an electronic tag for twelve months, as well as on a curfew between 8pm, and 7am daily.

What we have to bear in mind is that not all online gamblers behave so badly, it takes all types to make up the world, and by the same token, gambling games, as we said previously, are not the problem. It is easy to blame a game or gambling over all when a person is in denial, but we all have to be responsible for our own actions or inactions.

It is only when a problem gambler admits to him/herself that they have a problem, that they will be receptive to help. In this case the defendant surrendered himself to the police and was forthcoming in admitting what he had done, when he eventually realised he could no longer get away with the farce. Eventually he did take responsibility for his poor judgement, and the courts definitely take this into consideration when handing down a sentence.

Fortunately for us, the British Government makes sure that warnings are present at all the above-board gambling online services. This includes self-exclusion, as well as links to various help programmes such as GambleAware. Most are eCOGRA certified, so, look out for this accreditation too, and it means that recourse is available to take care of consumer needs, it also ensures quality control.

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.