Operators place bets on online gambling as penetration rises

摘要

It's little surprise that online gambling has become big business in the past few years. Although definitive stats are hard to come by — many operators are privately held companies - the sector is reckoned to have grown from nothing in 1995 to more than $8 billion in 2004 (see fig.). And the market is expected to grow at an annual 20% or more for several years to come, according to a new report by UK-based equity research company Edison Investment Research. The U.S. is believed to account for more than 40% of the online-gambling market as a whole and 60-70% of the market for online poker. Asia-Pacific, dominated by Japan, is reckoned to be the fastest-growing, at an annual rate of 50%, followed by Europe at 35-40%.