Gaming Is Booming In Australia And Asia | Sports Business ...

With the European Union fighting a recession and decreased growth in Brazil and China, it appears that one of the few bright areas in the modern day economy is the sportsbook industry.

Despite the gloom in the global economies, online gambling ? especially in the Asia-Pacific region ? is going quite strong.

Well-respected online gaming site IBIS produced a report earlier this week that included estimates for growth of online gambling in Australia and Asia of 3.3% in 2012 alone. The two key segments of the growing business are sports betting and poker.

Sports betting has been legal in Australia for some time now. That fact combined with the passion for sports in Australia has fueled the growth of online gambling profits. In the past decade, revenue has grown to more than $400 million. Even so, it?s poker that still leads the profits with 60% of total Australian gaming revenue expected to come from the popular casino game.

Southeast Asia is also seeing a boom as the region expects revenues to double between 2011 and 2015. The Asian culture strongly believes in luck, and the people love to gamble, so it?s not a surprise. Singapore, Macau, and South Korea are all expanding their gambling offerings and these regions are seeing continual increases. Singapore legalized gambling in 2009, and it has seen a huge upswing in revenue since then. Macau ? the only part of China where gambling is legal ? is being built into a Las Vegas-East and is a thriving gambling haven.

While land-based gambling has always been popular, it?s the advent of Internet technology that has helped the continual boom. Technological advances have helped pave the way for online gambling revenues -- and now, users are even able to participate via mobile devices.

It?s good to see that at least one realm of the economy isn?t just surviving, but instead growing rapidly. Maybe that will be the catalyst that helps turn things around for a fledgling global economy.

Twitter: @Inspin

Editor's note: This article originally appeared on Inspin.com.

No positions in stocks mentioned.

Source: http://www.minyanville.com/special-features/sports-business/articles/online-gambling-online-gambling-asia-online/7/16/2012/id/42336

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