“Online Casinos Gaining Popularity in Europe”

The greater availability of hi-speed internet connections is being viewed as one of the main reasons for online gambling’s huge global following. Statistics show that far from being immune to the charms of the online “bug,” Europe has been bitten in a big way!

Neilsen/NetRatings, an internet research company, has recently released findings that indicate just how popular online gambling has become in the UK and Europe. There has been a 45 percent increase over last year in online gambling in the UK, and more than three million UK internet users logged onto an online gaming site in February of this year alone. During that same month of February, 14 million players in Europe logged on to an internet casino. Judging from the statistics, online gambling in Europe seems to have caught on most with the French and the Swedes – less so with the Spanish and Italians.

Neilsen/NetRatings offer the following reasons for this trend, a trend they say has only just started and is growing by leaps and bounds: increased availability of hi-speed internet connections, greater variety of games, prizes awarded by online sites. To back up the first part of this theory with a statistic, it seems that 75% of those in the UK who visited online casinos did so with the speed, comfort and convenience provided by a broadband connection.

The most popular gambling sites in the UK seem to be the National Lottery – logging more than 1.3 million entries solely in the month of February – followed by the William Hill sports betting site and PartyPoker.com.