Thursday, November 09, 2006

The global gaming market yielded $258.3 billion in 2005. Online gambling
brought in 5 percent, or $13 billion, according to the United Kingdom-based
Global Betting and Gaming Consultants' 2005 report. Online gambling is one
of the fastest-growing segments of the gaming market at a compound annual
growth rate of more than 50 percent since 1998. The market is projected to
reach $25.2 billion in 2010. But the United States is trying to shut it down
to Americans. On Oct. 13, President Bush signed into law the Unlawful
Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
attached to the Safe Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006. The UIGE Act
prohibits unlawful Internet gambling by restricting gambling sites from
accepting payments from U.S. residents. The Secretary of Treasury and the
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System will issue the regulations
and enforce the act in a grace period of 270 days. The United States
accounts for 47 percent of the global gross gaming yield in 2005 making it
the largest market in the world. Some of the top offshore gambling and fee
transfer sites have already pulled out of the U.S. market, including London
publicly-traded companies, PartyGaming and its subsidiary PartyPoker, and
financial services company Neteller. PartyGaming has 12 million registered
players, including 84 percent, or more than 10 million, in the United
States. Its PartyPoker Web site generates an average daily revenue of $2.5
million. "It's like they're just throwing away $2.5 million a day," said Bob
Pajich, managing news editor of Card Player Media, a media resource
producing CardPlayer.com and Card Player magazine with United States
headquarters in Las Vegas and International presence in Europe. "I am
surprised by all of the sites that have pulled out this early and they're
mostly publicly traded sites who may have been forced to do this because of
their image. I don't understand why they didn't just wait and see until the
Treasury released its regulations." Online poker makes up 20 percent of the
annual online gaming revenue behind online sports betting (36 percent) and
online casinos (25 percent). Pajich said of the five major online poker
sites - Poker Stars, Full Tilt, Ultimate Bet, Bodog and PartyPoker - only
PartyPoker thus far has chosen to no longer accept U.S. players. About 10
offshore poker Web sites have banned U.S. players since the act has passed.
"Some sites have already said they're not going to deal with U.S. players
and that's going to hurt their bottom line," Pajich said. "For the other Web
sites, they have been seeing record numbers every weekend for their
tournaments and regular play."

Some offshore casinos and sports books did not ban U.S. residents because
U.S. law does not regulate them.

Players have several options to deposit money into their casino and sports
book accounts via Internet financial transaction Web sites based outside the
United States. Western Union, money orders and e-checks through their
checking accounts can be verified and set up directly like a debit card
through casinos and sports books.

Neteller was the leading Internet financial services transactions Web site
for U.S. players with more than $7 billion in annual transactions globally.
But after the 270-day grace period, Neteller will no longer accept
transactions from U.S. residents.

"That will be a bump in the road in the industry, but I just think there
will be more ways and Web sites to pop up for U.S. residents to deposit
funds," Pajich said. "It all depends on how easy it is for someone to figure
out how to get funds into their online accounts and get around this law.
It's
a big wait-and-see game."

State's video poker revenue up 26 percent

Year-to-date revenue through September is up 26 percent at $167.9 million
compared with $133.3 million in January through September 2005, according to
the Louisiana State Police.

September revenues of $56.7 million are up 2.5 percent compared with $55.4
million in August.

Truck stops continue to be the state's largest moneymaker, generating $99.4
million through September, an increase of 21.5 percent from the $81.8
million reported year-to-date in 2005.

There are 6,264 video gaming devices in truck stops, which make up 46.6
percent of the 13,429 video gaming devices in the state.

Off-track betting establishments had the biggest revenue increase
year-to-date at 152.8 percent up to $9.1 million from the $3.6 million
reported in January through September 2005.

Bars had the second-largest increase at 36.1 percent up to $37.4 million
reported through September from $27.4 million in the same period last year.