Poker the ace card in gambling future

By Robert Fenton 20 July 2005 The explosion in gambling in the last six years has been phenomenal. The changing face of this form of entertainment is mushrooming to such an extent that there are plans for a new national daily sports paper to rival the Racing Post. It will be called 'The Sportsman' and will come on line just before the Cheltenham Festival next March. Jeremy Deedes, former chief executive of the Telegraph Group, is heading the venture. "This is not a sports paper but a betting newspaper," he said, " And it will provide all the statistics and information needed to bet on racing, golf or whatever." Interesting to look at recent stats provided by The Business of Gambling which shows that the total punted in 1998 in the UK, was £84.8 billion. That rose to £131.4 billion in 2004 - an increase of 40 per cent. And a warning to all those in the racing industry - the expansion is coming at a cost to horse racing which has seen its market share fall dramatically in that time from 14 per cent to around 10 per cent. But the fastest growth is in on-line gambling. It accouts for four per cent of the market but that picture will change as it expands at 40 per cent per annum. Sports betting takes up 45 per cent of the on-line pool with gaming (casinos) around 32 per cent. But it's predicted that on-line poker will outstrip both in less that three years time as the frenzy of sites continue. Poker is now being hyped up in newspapers and televison and the feats of Belfast-born Adam Black in scooping £1m in Las Vegas in the World Series of Poker tournament and Aussie Jo Hachem who walked away with £4.28m - the biggest prize in poker history - will add to the allure. Only last year, there were 1.5m on-line players throughout the world. By 2008, it is forecast there will b 7.7m players spending in the region of £3.3 billion.