Understanding Internet gamblers are wealthy and wise

14 Sep Understanding Internet gamblers are wealthy and wise

Internet gambling might be legalized, because a recent survey revealed that most online gamblers are affluent and educated. The Washington D.C casino groups have requested a study on Internet gambling to the American Gaming Association now that Great Britain and other countries have legalized online gambling.

The AGA president, Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. said that because the regulators were against legalizing online gambling, so was the group. He considers the fact that Great Britain has legalized gambling as a reason for the Congress to take another look at online gambling.

Frank also said that the survey proved that the people’s ideas about online gambling were wrong. Most people believe that only the persons who can least afford it gamble online, but that is untrue.

Peter D. Hart from the Research Associates Inc. conducted the survey on 552 Internet gamblers, and it revealed that 41% of them make more than $75,000 a year, while only 12% make less than $35,000.

Most of the gamblers were men under the age of 40 who started to gamble online less than two years ago. 61% have a college diploma and almost half of those said that they chose this type of gambling because is more convenient.

Fifty-five percent believed that the online companies cheat and fewer than one in five admitted they knew that online gambling was illegal in the States. The survey revealed on other subjects:

The 455 casinos from 11 states made last year $30.29 billion in gross gambling revenue, which means the profit has increased by 5% since last year. Las Vegas revenues made more than $6 billion, and Atlantic City revenues made more than $5 billion for the first time.

Nearly one in five of those people said they played online poker last year, which means the poker boom that started in 2004 is still strong. More than 354,000 were hired by the gambling industry and they received together more than $12.6 billion last year.

The taxes and fees paid by the industry to local governments were more than $4.92 billion. The participants to the survey had to be older than 21 and they had to bet online at least once in the past year.

The survey has no reported error margin because it was not made randomly on the general public, but on a specific group.