International prospects good for online and mobile gambling

A new study by Juniper Research has found that more than one in 10 adults worldwide will engage in some form of mobile or online gambling by 2019, with nearly half of adults in UK and Italian markets playing by that time.

Researchers at Juniper say that while to some extent the forward growth can be attributed to the migration of lottery products to mobile channels, it will also be fuelled by the liberalisation of other online markets across Europe and the United States.

Despite political and enforcement activity, offshore sites that still accept US action in non-legalised states continue to experience high levels of traffic, the researchers claim.

However major companies are increasingly complying with laws regulating and licensing online gambling in the EU and US, and several withdrawals from contentious markets have been noted.

“Playtech and Mansion both pulled out of Germany earlier this year, while the new tax rates on sports betting in Portugal have led to William Hill exiting that market,” researcher Dr Windsor Holden observed.

“The introduction of prohibitive taxation rates will simply lead to an exodus of major players with customers switching to unlicensed operators.”