Gambling existed for thousands of years and will also exist forever as long as people are willing to go ahead and gamble.
Gambling took on many forms throughout history, whether it was wagering bets on who would win a war or a battle or chase down a wild boar the fastest.
Then came dice games and other forms of relatively primitive games which allowed mankind its much needed outlet for risk taking and later on came cards game,roulette, sports bets and all the other gambling options we have today. All of these games had something in common though: they were all games played in one specific place, by a group of people who could see, hear and sometimes, unfortunately, smell each other.
All this changed with the help of technology and a little thing called the Internet. The Internet has changed our lives in many ways and in practically every aspect of life. Gambling, of course, is no exception. Online gambling caught on like fire and is today one of the most prosperous online industries in the world with billions of dollars in revenue each year, and the numbers just keep growing. In Germany, for instance, online casinos have reaped huge profits. Casino online spielen has become very popular amongst the 20 year-olds with roulette taking the lead. As one puts it Roulette spielen (or to play roulette) is so much fun.
The Internet - Gambling With New Technology
Two decades later, in the mid-1990's, the World Wide Web revolutionized the gambling world. The evolution of technology made it possible to gamble anywhere, anytime. The first online casino offered 18 different games and online access to the National Indian Lottery. The online gambling industry revenues in 1997 were $1 billion, with $600 million from the U.S. alone. The revenues tripled by 2001 with more than $3 billion worldwide, almost tripled again by 2004 with $8.2 billion and reached more than $15 billion in revenues so far in 2006. All predictions for the future of online gambling, which predicted revenues of $25 billion by 2010 arenow void, due to the new American law. But growth in the industry, where gambling is not outlawed, is guaranteed particularly in the French market with casinos such as http://fr.casinoaction.com and http://fr.goldentigercasino.com.
On September 30 2006, the United States Congress passed a bill that made it illegal for banks and credit cards companies to process payments from U.S. residents to online gambling companies. The bill was attached at the last minute to a completely different bill regarding ports security. The bill later became law when President Bush signed it on October 13.
What happened next is a major downfall of online gambling companies stocks. Party Gaming, operator of Party Poker, dropped 56 percent, 888 holdings went down 27 percent and Sportingbet's stocks fell 56 percent and has recently sold its American division to Jazette Enterprises for $1 in order to get rid of a $13.3 million debt.
While the online gambling industry will probably survive the recent setback, it is undeniable that the industry has run into a major difficulty since the U.S. provides half of the income for some companies and much more than that to others. This is a critical hour and an interesting time for the online gambling industry. It remains to be seen if it will get back on its feet, perhaps stronger than ever, or will it slowly be reduced to a few big companies that will be strong enough towithstand the recent blow.
