Online and Offline Gambling Continues Strong Growth

America’s love of the dice

Information reported by Christiansen Capital Advisors, which monitors the gambling industry and other leisure activities, confirms the American obsession with gambling, which started offline and is now moving online.

Eugene Christiansen, the chairman, based in New York says,’The overall wagering rose 6.85 percent in 2002 to a gross national total of $69.7 billion, not including Internet gambling, which is considered international and unverifiable. The biggest revenue came from casinos, $28 billion gross in 2002. It is absolutely enormous, and will continue to grow’.

The $69.7 billion gross is compared with the $9.3 billion from movie box office, $10.6 billion from spectator sports, $12.19 billion from recorded music, $18.98 billion from flowers and plants and $9.9 billion from theme parks, confirms Dan Eber, an analyst with Christiansen.

The biggest growth in 2002 was 11 percent in lotteries also the biggest single purchaser of advertising time on radio and television.

Online, things seem to be better according to operators and worse according to critics. A Bear Stearns report for the industry pegs annual revenue at $4.2 billion for 2003, while Christiansen Capital Advisors predicts an estimated $10 billion in revenue for calendar year 2005. InformaMedia Group, which tracks electronic gambling, predicts that online gaming revenue will even reach $14.5 billion by 2006.