Gambler's Thread 01 (May 08 - Nov 10)

[winston]

Online Bingo Industry Poised for Growth: Joe Saumarez-Smith

June 27 (Bloomberg) -- For most people, bingo brings up images of elderly ladies in smoke-filled halls. But many online gambling executives say it's the next big growth area.

Consider the numbers. The U.K. is the world's most developed online bingo market, with the number of Web sites growing to 243 in June 2008 from 17 in 2004, according to Phil Fraser of Leeds, England-based Which Bingo, one of the leading bingo information sites and chairman of the 2008 Online Bingo Summit, which met in London last week. In Spain, the second most competitive market, the number of Web sites grew to 40 from six in the past year.

A report released this month by BingoPort.co.uk, an online bingo tracking service, estimated the U.K. online bingo industry earned 120 million pounds ($239 million) last year on 650 million pounds of revenue. The U.K.'s Gambling Commission estimates there are about 500,000 British online bingo players each month.

Online bingo isn't new -- the first game appeared in 1995 in the U.S. -- but its growth has been accelerated by the spread of broadband Internet access. Bingo players tend to be female, aged 25 to 50 and educated to high school level, according to data released by Cashcade Ltd., owner of Foxy Bingo and Think Bingo, two of the largest privately owned U.K. Web sites.

European Expansion

Al Haig-Thomas, chief executive of Virtue Fusion, a software supplier to U.K. bingo brands including Rank Group Plc's Mecca, William Hill Plc, British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc's Skybet and Ladbrokes Plc, says the opportunities for growth are in Europe during the next one to three years and in South America and Asia during the next five to eight years.

``We have several clients planning launches in Spain in the next three months and also new sites in Denmark, Sweden and Ireland,'' Haig-Thomas said in an interview. ``All are undeveloped markets that have a history and culture of bingo halls, so you would expect them to follow the U.K. market in terms of growth.''

(Disclaimer: I own Crown Bingo Ltd., a U.K. online bingo marketing network, and am an investor in various privately held online bingo websites. Crown Bingo uses software from Virtue Fusion.)

Bingo is big business in the U.S., but the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 slashed the number of online sites operating there. Americans still play bingo extensively, mainly as a fundraising exercise for churches and community associations. Many casinos have bingo halls to bring in regular attendees from the local market.

Bingo Television

In the U.K., the main commercial broadcaster, ITV Plc, recently started a daily bingo show, Bingo Night Live, which achieved respectable audience ratings for its midnight time slot. The game is linked to ITV's online site, itvbingo.com, which was developed with PartyGaming Plc.

In Sweden, a weekly bingo show is one of the most-watched programs. Several speakers at last week's Bingo Summit said the future is in televised bingo shows linked to a Web site.

Warwick Bartlett, chairman of U.K.-based Global Betting and Gaming Consultants, says online bingo is still relatively immature compared with Internet casinos and sports betting.

``We estimate that by 2012 online bingo will account for 25 percent of the worldwide betting market and deliver profits in excess of $2 billion,'' Bartlett said at last week's conference.

``As broadband penetration increases, people become more conscious about the cost of driving to real-world bingo halls,'' Bartlett said. When ``they find that they can't smoke when they get there, playing online bingo from home becomes more and more attractive. From a customer point of view it is a great gambling proposition at a very low cost,'' he said.

Lost in Translation?

Of course, there are risks. Many of the territories discussed as having huge potential growth are of dubious legality; executives of online gambling companies have been arrested in Turkey and France in the past 12 months while several European governments are fighting legal actions to keep online gambling companies from targeting their citizens.

There is also the danger that bingo doesn't translate well into new territories that have no history of bingo halls. Do Polish or Ukrainian gamblers want to play bingo, a game with no cultural roots in those countries?

Finally, in both the U.S. and U.K. there is plenty of evidence that bricks and mortar operators of casinos, betting shops and bingo halls are suffering from recession, even though gambling historically has suffered little during an economic slump.

Fraser at Which Bingo says there are signs of a slowdown in the U.K. online bingo market. ``It appears the market is growing at about 3 percent month on month, versus about 10 percent about a year ago,'' he said in an interview. ``So there is some sign that the economy is having an effect on online bingo. But I would prefer to say that while it may not be recession-proof, those sort of growth numbers suggest it seems to be recession- resistant.''

[millionairemind]

Talking about Gambling in Singapore, I am concerned with the social fabric in Singapore once the IR opens...

Chinese are well known around the world to be gamblers, I think it is in the genes

I understand that our all-capable gahmen is saying that they will set up this and that to take care of problem gamblers, including baning them from the IRs. Maybe I am too pessimistic, but I expect to see more dyfunctional families, more broken homes and more divorces in Singapore within 3 years of IR opening....

The IR in my opinion is the last ditch effort to move towards service industry (like in the US where service accounts for 67%) from manufacturing industry.

Lets hope our social fabric will be able to take this kind of disruptive forces.

[kennynah]

MM : i am less optimistic that our society will ever be healthier than before the IR becomes operational. gambling dens are catalytic to the start of other vice trades, such as wide spread prostitution, sprouting of ah long syndicates, and can generate serious crimes like robberies and drug abuses.

it is absolutely wrong for singapore to embark on this path in the first place. i was among the handful of people who petitioned the useless president to stop parliament from allowing this to proceed.

this is an example of one-party government system. there's really nothing stopping them from doing anything at all. one day, they decide to split the hundreds of billions of reserves among the people in white...and pass this legislature into law...legalising this move. and there's nothing, nothing at all, anyone, not u, not me, not even the president can stop this from happening...it is extreme, an example, of cos....

but the old adage...that extreme power corrupts extremely... bears truth...

i cringe when i hear young singaporeans lauding on and on how great the government is, how wonderful the great leeder is...bow, kneel, kowotw....burn joss sticks...kneel, kowtow...idiots !

[winston]

If someone wants to gamble in Singapore, they could :-
1) go to the various clubs to play the "one-arm bandits"
2) take a weekend Star Cruise
3) play the horses or 4D or toto
4) take the bus to Genting Highlands or fly to Macau. Very soon there would also be casinos in Thailand
5) gamble online
6) or for a problem gambler like me, punt the stockmarkets

So might as well start a casino in Singapore and collect the tax revenue...

[kennynah]

i am a selfish fella...

i prefer to shit at other's backyard and pay for this service...

rather than allow others to shit on my backyard and collect the revenue... some things, i dont wana to earn..

this is one of those things

[helios]

If someone wants to gamble in Singapore, they could :-
1) go to the various clubs to play the "one-arm bandits"
2) take a weekend Star Cruise
3) play the horses or 4D or toto
4) take the bus to Genting Highlands or fly to Macau. Very soon there would also be casinos in Thailand
5) gamble online
6) or for a problem gambler like me, punt the stockmarkets

Q: Can/ How i check my BigSweep Ticket online?

[HengHeng]

but the old adage...that extreme power corrupts extremely... bears truth...

i cringe when i hear young singaporeans lauding on and on how great the government is, how wonderful the great leeder is...bow, kneel, kowotw....burn joss sticks...kneel, kowtow...idiots !

Erm it really depends , i'm more worried about "protected and spoiled" batch of young singaporeans which grow up in peace and prosperity not being able to handle changes and the ease of access to gambling is similiar to the problems of internet porn.

Last time no access no problems with and everything is done discreedly nowadays (lesser social problems i.e. teen pregancies), now that porn is readily accessible it comes with alot of social problems as well.

Just talk to every "kid" and you have realised many are pretty materialistic and would go for material comforts rather than saving and scrimp for a better future. Just look at the sign-ups on credit cards you would have known what i mean. I know it coz i think i still belong to that age group.

The easy access to casinos would bring about alot of social problems directly or indirectly. Broken families , would bring more social problems . Soon Singapore would be become "Sin" City and not one which is safe and peaceful.

[millionairemind]

Soon Singapore would be become "Sin" City and not one which is safe and peaceful.

When that happens, I will probably pack up my family and leave...

[iam802]

'Sin City' or not, the younger generation will be more mobile.

They are all part of the global workforce. Talent come, talent can also go.

[HengHeng]

i'm not worried about the mobile ones .. but i'm worried for the ones they leave behind.