There Is Still A Great Deal Of Potential In Online Gambling, Some Are Saying

Recent studies are indicating that there may still be some good growth in online gambling in the future.

Harris Interactive and eMarketer have come out with a recent study that puts them in the same ballpark as several other highly regarded estimates. They're study estimates worldwide online gambling revenues for 2005 at $10.9 billion. This is up from the 2004 figure of $8.5 billion.

Ironically, the greater majority of adult respondents from the United States and Great Britain are saying that they’ve never spent money at an online casino, according to the Harris Interactive report.
Furthermore the research firm reports that 95 percent of United States adults who have Internet access claim that they've never spent money playing at an online casino. Of those reporting, 94 percent say that they have never spent money at online poker, and as man as 97 percent report that they have never bet on sports online.

Even though gambling online is currently legal in Great Britain, a comparable number of British adult respondents are reporting that they have never placed a bet on a sports game (91 percent). An additional 94 percent report that they have never played at an online casino. In addition, 95 percent say they have never bet at an online poker game.

If only a undersized percentage of this demographic can be accessed effectively, it makes for a enormous and as yet unexploited prospective online gaming market.

Perhaps because of the perplexing U.S. legal standing of Internet casino and poker betting, online adults are alienated over whether it should be forbidden or not, the study suggests. Of those queried, 34 percent say they would be in favor of a ban, 32 percent say they would be against it, and 34 percent are don’t know. This may be compared with a survey taken last year by Scooop. That survey reported that 67 percent of US adults were opposed to a ban.

eMarketer, the company carrying out  the survey says that in the United States, such surveys reflect differing results on who gambles online.

There is one report that indicates that up to 15 percent of all US Internet users report visiting gambling or sweepstakes sites a minimum of one time during the month. But the Harris Interactive surveys suggests that as many as 95 percent of United States residents have never spent money with online casinos or any other betting sites.

The eMarketer report states that they are suspicious that if online gambling were to be made legal in the United States, then online users would have been less reticent to admit that they gamble online, and that therefore the poll numbers would be noticeably higher.

When they were asked if they believed that online gambling should continue to be considered as being illegal in the US, users were about divided. Of those polled, 53 percent said that it should remain banned while 47 percent favored its legalization.

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