Offshore Internet Casinos Losing Allies
The offshore internet gambling industry is fast losing allies in the United
States, according to a Wall Street Journal report yesterday. The newspaper revealed that PayPal, traditionally one of the favoured ways
for US gamblers to bet online, wound down its gambling payment service on Sunday.
This follows moves by various US banking groups, such as the country's largest
credit card issuer Citigroup, to stop their cards being used to gamble on the
internet, and announcements that several leading websites will no longer carry
advertisements for online gambling services. Speaking to the WSJ, Bear Stearns analyst, Michael Tew estimated that there
are approximately 1,800 internet casinos currently in operation, most of them
located in the Caribbean. Despite the fact that online betting is illegal in
the vast majority of US states, Mr Tew revealed that around 60% of their revenue
comes from the US market. However, following recent announcements, the Bear Stearns analyst predicted,
industry growth in this area is set to drop to 20% next year, far below previous
estimates of 43%. 'Regulators have been at least somewhat successful in curbing the growth of
the industry,' he told the WSJ, adding that: 'You're going to see, in the near
future, increased attrition in the market.' A comprehensive report detailing the online gambling situation in several offshore jurisdictions is available in the Tax News Reports Shop at http://www.tax-news.com/reportshop/
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