Juniper: Worldwide mobile gambling to hit $16.6B by 2011

The global mobile gambling market shows promise despite recent legislation in the United States against Internet gambling, according to new numbers from Juniper Research. The firm predicts the global market for all forms of mobile gambling, including casinos, lotteries and sports betting, will grow from $1.3 billion in 2006 to $16.6 billion by 2011 in terms of the gross value of bets placed.
“Juniper Research published its last full report on mobile gambling in June 2006. Following the tightening of legal barriers to all forms of online gambling in the USA we decided to revisit our market forecasts as clearly the environment had changed,” said Bruce Gibson, the author of the report. “The new forecasts confirm that there is still great potential for mobile gambling services where legislation permits. However, we have certainly dramatically cut back forecasts for the development of the North American market.”
The firm said Europe was the largest market for mobile gambling last year, with an estimated $665 million in bets placed. However, the firm forecast that the Asia Pacific market will overtake Europe by 2008.