Due to the optimism surrounding the possibility of the introduction of a regulatory environment in The United States at some stage during 2010, we have seen quite a bit of activity lately from companies looking to get a foothold fro entry into the market if and when it materializes.
The Greek online gambling and online casino company, Intralot, is the latest operator to take this kind of position by buying a stake in U.S. gaming company CyberArts. Intralot also has the option to buy a controlling share in the future.
Intralot is a very large operator whose interests run well beyond just the online casino sector and into sports betting and lotteries as well.
CyberArts does not currently offer services in the U.S. even though it is a U.S. company but the move still positions Intralot to very quickly offer services to U.S. customers if the UIGEA ban is lifted.
With this prospect in place at some stage in the coming year we can expect to see more moves like this from companies hedging their bets on an opening up of The United States for business again at some stage in the near future.
As the decade draws to a close, the retrospectives of the first decade of the 21st century are everywhere. The prevailing perspective on the decade invariably features something about it being the decade when the Internet went mainstream.
In the broader sense this is certainly a reasonable suggestion. When one looks at the microcosm of the online casino industry, one must be prepared for a much steeper curve of history.
The last decade is the majority of the history of this industry and the rapid nature of change and development is mind boggling at times.
The online casino industry is virtually unrecognizable from what it was a decade ago. As a rough guide to understanding the level of change, perhaps, the idea of a child entering its teenage years would be a better prism through which to view the situation.
Not unlike a teenager, the online casino industry has experienced severe growing pains and as certainly come into fairly heavy conflict with authority.
As the smoke begins to clear, it is not unreasonable to hope that the teenager that is the industry is starting to show signs of becoming a young adult. While regulatory conditions continue to be difficult, there are also signs that broader society is starting to accept this teenager as well.
Despite all of the difficulties that the online casino has had to face up to recently, it would appear that there is no shortage of new operations getting into the market.
Sources in a number of different jurisdictions suggest that the number of applications to operate online casinos from those bases will be well up in the coming year.
This is based on the number of preliminary applications that are currently in the pipeline and the level of interest from individuals and companies who have not made any formal applications at this time.
There are a number of possible reasons as to why this is happening at this time.
One of the main one is that it is generally accepted wisdom that quite a lot of the regulatory difficulties that the industry has suffered with in recent times will be sorted out in 2010.
The hope on this front has generated a lot of optimism within the industry and and it would now appear that the optimism is starting to take the shape of real activity on the ground.
Even though the year is not technically over yet, it wold probably be safe to suggest at this stage that 2009 has been a big year for branded games in the online casino industry.
The promotion of a product from one realm by leveraging the power of a strong brand in another has long been a staple marketing tool in other industries. One classic example would be the number of songs that have become hits because they were featured in or attached to popular movies.
The concept is certainly not new in the online casino either. The use of popular culture iconography to brand online casino is certainly not new to the industry. But, on the other hand, it would certainly be fair to suggest that this practice saw a significant upsurge in 2009.
There are many reasons that could be pointed to as marginal causes of this situation but surely one of the main ones is the development and solidification of the into the two distinct areas of retail and software/product provision.
With a few notable marquee exceptions, most online casinos operate on third-party delivered games and software. This has left the companies who provide the games and software looking for any edge possible to gather more retail clients to feature their games.
Branding such as the Cryptologic line of Marvel Comics branded games help to give this type of company a higher profile as well as associating the company with an already recognizable brand.
Attempting to predict the future is a dangerous business but it would seem that the growth of branded games is certainly set to continue for the immediate future at least.
It is often said that the online casino market is an extremely competitive one. This is one of those truisms that gets used all the time without an examination of the dynamics of the market that create this situation.
One of the first things that is always mentioned is the fact that the online casino market is a profitable one. This true but overlooks a vital part of the equation. It is a profitable market on a per customer basis. On average, each individual customer tends to be worth a good profit level to a casino.
What is often ignored in this is the fact that the market is a relatively niche one. In terms of overall Internet usage, the percentage of people at any given time who are looking to play online casino games is relatively small.
Also, of this already small percentage, the number of people who are actively looking to play for money is much smaller again.
When people talk about competition they are normally referring to the fight to generate raw traffic. In reality, the journey from raw visitor to playing for money is o at least equal importance and at a lot of online casinos is not given the same level of attention to detail.
A recent report has shown that the German online gambling ban has not really been effective at all. Large numbers of German citizens still regularly use online casinos despite the ban.
The ban has also caused quite a with the individual states within the country and the arguments against it are starting to gain some real traction.
The current version of the online gambling ban in the country is due to expire in 2011 and there is now a growing chorus of voices that favor the introduction of a regulatory environment in the country to replace the ban.
The basic crux of the argument is similar to other jurisdictions with similar bans in place. The ban has been largely ineffective while the state has lost massive revenues through taxation of the activity during the time it has been in place.
This growing consensus may cause a situation where the German Government feels the need to be more proactive and review the ban before 2011 expiry date.
There has long been a situation in the U.K. market where domestically based casinos have had to deal with the competition provided by offshore operators. The difficulty in this situation arises from the fact that for the most part the offshore operators have lowers costs.
This is normally the situation in the area of running costs as well as the very pertinent area of taxation. Ultimately, this has the effect of creating a somewhat unfair market where it can be difficult for the domestically based operators to compete.
It would now appear that The Department for Culture, Media, and Sport in Britain is looking at this situation. It seems that one of the main areas that is being looked at is the possibility of introducing a secondary licensing system for offshore operators who wish to conduct business in the UK.
At this time there are no firm details as to how this system might be implemented so we will have to wait for further information that should come in the form of a report from the department in a couple of months.
William Hill is a company that is already known for concentrating on the international element of its business.
The company already provides for eleven different languages through which its current sites and games can be accessed.
While many players are multilingual, it has been proven that players much prefer to access online casino games through their own language wherever possible and William Hill is a company that has always been keenly aware of this.
The company has just announced that it is going to add another seven languages to this list.
Finnish, Japanese, Hungarian, Romanian, Czech, Norwegian and Polish are the new languages that are about to be rolled out across the William Hill Games and sites.
Representative Peter King is the latest Republican to add his voice to the growing chorus calling for a repeal of the 2006 online gambling ban and the introduction of a regulated online gambling environment in the United States.
During the previous administration Peter King was very much at the center of homeland security. Two points that are often made with regard to the subject of online gambling are the potential for money laundering and by extension the funding of terrorism.
Representative King stated clearly that there is no evidence to suggest that a regulated online gambling market would create a problem in either regard. In fact he went as far as suggesting that the current situation was far more likely to cause problems in this regard.
Mr King’s opinion carries a lot of weight within the Republican party and the fact that he was so clear on the subject is a big boost for the overall case for a repeal of UIGEA and the introduction of a regulated online gambling environment in the United States.
When the six month delay on the full implementation of UIGEA was originally announced, the news was greeted with a certain amount of euphoria within online casino circles.
The hope obviously was that some version of Barney Frank’s bill could be passed in the meantime that would introduce a workable regulatory framework in which the online casino industry could operate.
The harsh reality of Washington is that things move very slowly. That euphoria that originally greeted the six month delay has now morphed into a realization that time is short and that there is still a vast amount of work to be done.
The other problem is that many politicians are concentrating on other issues. Ultimately, there is still a good possibility that something can be put together in the time frame but expectations have now solidified into something a bit more realistic than the over the top reaction that originally greeted the UIGEA delay.
