Punters to splash $12bn on mobile gambling by 2010

The increasing deployment of multiple mobile payment technologies and liberalisation of remote gambling legislation in key markets is expected to push total annual wagers on mobile phones to nearly $12bn by 2010, according to a new report by Juniper Research.

Mobile lotteries are expected to be the most popular service by the end of the forecast period, with more than 380m users worldwide. According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, ‘Mobile lotteries have already experienced significant levels of adoption in the Far East, while we envisage that European state lotteries will increasingly embrace the mobile environment in the medium term.”

The report added that growth would also be fuelled by market liberalisation such as the UK’s Gambling Act which came into force on September 1, and by proposed amendments to existing legislation elsewhere in Europe. Furthermore, it suggested that in the longer term, there would also be opportunities in the US market.

‘The intimations from the US are that the act will be repealed or at least reformed,” said Holden. ‘Should that be the case, then, facilitated by location-based technologies, in-state mobile lotteries, betting and possibly casino services will be available in that market by 2010.”