The iPhone could revolutionise gambling, says report

iPhone and other touchscreens could revolutionise the market. Despite my head shaking as I walked through the casinos in Las Vegas (brilliant money making enterprises), you can’t deny it. Folk love it. And the animation and UI potential of the iPhone marks it out as a good medium for gaming I’m sure.

Here’s an overview of Screen Digest’s latest report:

Released in the same month that Apple’s iPhone 3G went on sale, the report reveals the potentially revolutionary impact that touchscreen handsets could have on mobile gaming. In particular, Screen Digest expects that the iPhone will drive the growth of the North American market raising it to the leading global market by revenue next year.

From the perspective of both games developers and mobile users, these units have the potential to be the number one device for mobile gaming. This is supported by recently released retail sales figures that show 10 million applications were downloaded from the Apple online store in the three days after the iPhone 3G went on sale on July 11. However the handset presents technical challenges for developers, limiting the sophistication of the games on offer which in turn restricts audience retention.

You can get a PDF of the full release and some charts here.