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In some rather grim online poker news, the sector has suffered a meltdown on a global scale since the events of April 15, 2011, otherwise known as “Black Friday”. That’s when the US Justice Department indicted three of the world’s largest online poker companies and froze a good chunk of their assets. To date, only PokerStars has refunded US players back what was owed to them. Full Tilt Poker and UB.com are yet to pay US players two months later.
eGaming Review Magazine reports that growth in the online gambling sector is going to slow to 4.4 percent, the slowest we’ve seen since 1998.
H2 Gambling Capital offered the following analysis:
H2 said this morning: “Black Friday (and subsequent actions) occurring in the US that have decimated the scale of the Internet poker industry in that market. At this stage we have calculated that the impact will equate to as much as €765m of lost market value this year and a further €100m loss next.” It added that it expected the JRA’s interactive business to be down approximately 13% year-on-year in 2011.
In brighter news for the sector, global egaming gross win excluding the US and Japan is projected to grow by 12% year-on-year in 2011. The forecasts include the expected launch of cash poker and casino in Italy in the middle of this year, and not regulated activity in Greece, Belgium and Spain expected by H2 to commence at some point in 2012.
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
