US crackdown raises odds for Internet gambling

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US crackdown raises odds for Internet gambling
by Rob Lever
2 hours, 27 minutes ago



A US crackdown is expected to take a big bite out of the global market for Internet gambling even as efforts to legalize and regulate online wagering in the United States gather steam.

Bettors from the United States represented nearly half of the estimated 15 billion dollars in online gaming revenues in 2006, according to industry analysts and the Interactive Gaming Association.

But the odds have changed dramatically and the US market is now uncertain since last year's passage of a law to bar banks and credit card issuers from processing payments for online gaming.

Meanwhile the arrest in the US of key players in the industry -- including a Briton changing planes in the United States -- has also sent chills through the virtual gaming halls.

"All these things are extremely successful in terms of stymying the industry in the US," said Sue Schneider, publisher of Interactive Gaming News and a follower of the industry for a decade.

Warwick Bartlett, a partner of British-based Global Betting and Gaming Consultants, said he expected the US market share of the worldwide online gaming industry to drop from 45 percent in 2006 to 24 percent in 2007 as a result of the latest US law and other actions.

"The impact is going to be greater than expected," he said in a telephone interview.

Worldwide revenues meanwhile, which have been on an upward trajectory since 1999, are likely to fall from .......

LINKY to the Yahoo/AFP article.