What Does the 80% Growth in UK Online Gambling Mean?

The online gambling industry has been abuzz with the news over the last few days stating that there has been an 80% increase in UK online gambling revenue since 2008. The figures show that the online gambling industry in the UK was worth an incredible £2 billion in 2012, compared to £1.27 billion in 2008. The increase has been put down to several factors; notably the increase in mobile gambling technology, the increase in online casinos and the wide variety of sports betting events which have taken place in the last several years.

Where Have The Increases Been Seen? 

Sports Betting: Up 102%. Sports’ betting still dominates the industry, making up 44% of the overall revenue, an increase undoubtedly due to the advances in mobile phone and online betting platforms in the last two years.

Online Casinos: Up 79%. With the second biggest market share, the last several years has seen a flood of new online casinos, on computers, tablets and mobile phone devices.

Online Bingo: Up 155%. Worth 17% of the market, this huge increase will have been aided by the closure of a lot of land based bingo halls which has sent their players to online platforms.

Online Poker: Up 8%. A smaller increase, but this means that online poker contains 15% of the online gambling market in the UK, its smaller percentage possibly due to the game being harder to master.

Is This Good News For the UK? 

Well, yes, for the UK online gambling industry it is excellent news, as it shows the industry is still developing and profiting. However, there have been estimates made by analysts that the UK Government has missed out on a whopping £2.1 billion in revenue since setting the tax rate at 15%, by effectively forcing UK based gaming companies out of the country.

Many companies, such as William Hill (who command a 15% share of the overall market), have since moved their operations offshore to take advantage of more flexible tax rates, which has meant a huge loss of revenue for the UK, in terms of corporation taxes, income tax and National Insurance payments to name but a few revenue sources. You can read an independant review of William Hill Casino here.

Ian Burke, the CEO of the Rank Group, has hit out at politicians in the UK who consistently take a derogatory view of the online casino and gambling industry, and was recently quoted as saying the politicians’ negative statements with regards to casinos are confusing for the public. Burke stated that the way people gamble has changed, and the heavy restrictions and responsibilities held by online gambling companies today mean people gamble responsibly and overall, simply for fun.

The poor relationship between the online gambling industry and UK government is now be being tackled head on, as there are currently discussing to reduce the tax rate to tempt back some of these big, profitable employers (see here for more). For the UK Government – who are currently under fire for public and social cuts being made – it seems that by adjusting their attitude to the strictly regulated world of online gambling they could easily boost their ailing coffers. By modernising their old fashioned attitudes to online gambling, and start seeing it as the thriving, profitable industry that it is, why shouldn’t the UK economy benefit from this amazing growth too?

Mobile Casinos Set To Dominate in 2013?

It looks like 2013 could be the year of mobile gaming, as mobile casinos apps, betting platforms and mobile enabled casino sites continue to spring up from some of our favourite online casino brands, as well as from dynamic new entrepreneurial companies. Towards the end of 2012, it was predicted by major players in the UK Casino industry that mobile gambling – including casino, sports betting and poker – would start to account for a significant percentage of the casino market in 2013.

It is estimated that the proportion of the online casino market occupied by mobile gaming could increase by as much as 13% this year alone, which would mean incredible growth – experts predict as much as 20% year on year. In November 2012, it was estimated that the mobile gambling market was worth $3.5 billion, and estimations based on the current rate of growth suggest in five years it could be worth as much as $100 billion (according to Juniper Research reported in the Huff Post).

What Is The Best Mobile Casino To Play?

Naturally therefore, we are seeing more and more casino brands launching mobile versions of their casinos. But, as players, which mobile casino offers the best player experience? Whilst online gaming sites provide their own mobile apps – Pokerstars for poker, William Hill and 32 Red for casino and sports betting, for the best casino experience we prefer those who specialise in mobile gaming technology.

Currently on our iPhones is LotteryCasino.net, which is a UK mobile only casino app providing a fantastic range of online slots and casino table games. All the games are provided by the developer Probability, who specialise in developing mobile enabled games. The app can be downloaded to both iPhones and Android smartphones, and the games are perfectly sized for the smartphone screens of an iPhone 4S or a Samsung S2 or S3.

Even better is that Lottery Casino are releasing games quickly and regularly, so the choice of gameplay is only getting better as time goes on. Plus, you can take advantage of a totally free £5.00 to play with when signing up before you part with your hard earned cash.

To find out more about Lottery Casino, you can read an independent review of the mobile casino on the casino news and review resource, Gamble.co.uk, which now has an area dedicated to mobile casinos. Then tell us what you think by leaving a comment below!

New Mobile Casino Games at Stan James

Everyone knows the UK bookmarker name that is Stan James and now this successful company has realised some new mobile casino games for all players to enjoy. Thanks to a deal between Realistic Games, a casino software provider and Stan James players at this online gaming site can start enjoy loads of new mobile casino games in the palm of their hands whilst on the move.

These new mobile casino games from Stan James are available for players to use on either there smartphones or iPads and come with a high resolution and smooth gaming options. This new mobile casino games lobby at Stan James now consists of ten games, eight of which are slot games and then two table games.

The new games that are available to play at Stan James mobile casino are mobile blackjack, mobile roulette, Bullseye slot, Sunset Reels mobile slot, The Rainbow mobile slot, Pentagram mobile slot, Super Graphics Upside Down mobile slot, Double Bubble mobile slot and Snakes and Ladders mobile slot.

All of these new games are added to the existing mobile sports betting facility that is available from Stan James that enables users to view instant odds, the latest scores, stats tools and also commentaries. Using a mobile casino appeals to many players as they can play casino games right in the palm of their hands and as Stan James has released new mobile casino games it is proving that gaming this way is very popular with all different types of casino players.

For more information on mobile casinos please visit gamble.co.uk

Mobile Casino Play’n Go Launches Six New Games

The mobile casino developer that is Play’n Go is launching six new mobile casino games over the next few weeks.  In addition to these new mobile casino games this developer is also releasing two new premium Flash Games for the web.

These new mobile casino games from Play’n Go will be available to use on most smartphones and tablets. The games which are due to be released are:

Casino Hold’em

Casino Stud Poker

Trey Card Poker

Triple Chance Hi/Lo

Scratch Ahoy

Hole in One

The key features which these various new mobile casino games will contain include being available to play on Apple iOS, Andriod, Blackberry and Windows 7, supports both portrait and landscape, duel resolutions (higher for iPhone 4 and iPad, lower for the rest) and available in 26 different languages.

This mobile casino games from Play’n Go have are ready for some selected customers to play on. Martin Zettergren who is the Product Development Director of Play’n Go believes that the launch of these new games will cement this developer as the number one choice for mobile casino content. 

Play’n Go are hoping that the release of these new mobile casino games will strength its position as the market leader for casino game content for smartphone and tablet devices. Although there are just six new mobile casino games set to launch Play’n Go will carry on developing a range of games and top slot games in Flash and Mobile games in HTML5 and will all be launched sometime in the next few months.

If you like this article you can check for some exciting mobile casino reviews on gamble.co.uk

UK Player Wins Big on Mobile Casino

A player from the UK has won big twice at the Mobile Casino site All Slots Casino on the 3^rd December 2011.

Everyone likes to win in a casino and with Christmas Day nearly here winning this month would be probably one of the best times of the year to pick up a prize. This is exactly what happened to a UK player, known as Sharon S as at the beginning of December she really struck lucky while using the mobile casino All Slots Casino. However, not only did Sharon win just once on this mobile casino but she scooped two big prizes both on the 3^rd December.

Sharon started playing in this mobile casino in the early hours of Saturday morning on the 3^rd December and she won £10,160 whilst playing the popular mobile casino slot game Mermaid’s Millions. Sharon couldn’t believe her luck when she found out she had won on this mobile casino. “I woke up my partner and told him I had won, I was so happy,” she said. To make sure she hadn’t dreamt that she had won Sharon had to go back onto the mobile casino and check her balance when she woke up in the morning.

With a taste for winning Sharon later went back on to the same Mobile Casino that day and her luck continued as she then won a further £10,125 on the Age of Discovery slot game.

In addition to her winning on the slots games, All Slots Casino sent Sharon an Android tablet to help her celebrate her wins.

Using your phone to play in the various Mobile Casinos that are available has developed to be quite popular as you can play from wherever you are. As Sharon has proved you can even play and win from the comfort of your own bed at whatever time suits you!

For more information about Mobile Casinos visit gamble.co.uk

Betfred Mobile Casino

Betfred has just announced the launch of their new brand Betfred Mobile Casino. The mobile casino games will be available for Blackberry, Android and IPhone owners. Players will be able to play such games as Monopoly, Cleopatra, Rainbow Riches slots, Roulette 3D, blackjack and many others. Betfred Mobile Casino are offering a £5 instant bonus as soon as you wager your first £5.
A full review of Betfred Mobile Casino will soon be available on gamble.co.uk

Virgin Mobile Casino Games

Virgin Games have recently launched a brand new mobile casino section, which allows players to play Virgin Mobile Casino Games on different mobile devices, including Smartphone, Blackberry, IPhone and others.

If you have never played at Virgin Mobile Casino, or still haven’t deposited, you have a chance to claim a 100% welcome bonuses. You can claim your bonus by making a successful deposit, while depositing you have to enter a special bonus code, which is – mobi1 and you are ready! You will earn a bonus by wagering 25 times your deposit on mobile casino games. You will receive a £5 bonus for every £125 wagered. The minimum amount that you can deposit is £5, the maximum bonus that you can receive is £25.

As well as playing for the big jackpots you can also use Free Play to try out all of the games at Virgin Casino before taking the plunge and making your first deposit.

If you wonder what the Virgin Mobile Casino Games are, here are a few:

• Thunderstruck – a slot game, which includes different bonuses like free spins and a gamble facility.


• Tomb Raider - mobile slot game, features five reels and fifteen paylines, as well as a Tomb bonus game


• Roulette – classic roulette game, based on European style roulette


• Blackjack – standard blackjack game, with a deck of 52 play cards, which are shuffled before each game. This game is available on Tablets and Smartphones.


• Dragon’s Fortune – instant win card game. You have to match 2 out of 6 symbols to win.


• Jacks or Better – is a video poker game. Draw a poker hand higher than two jacks in order to claim a prize.

The games above are just a small selection of mobile casino games available at the new Virgin Mobile Casino. Before you play you might want to read the Virgin Casino review at Gamble.co.uk for a better insight into the Virgin brand.

Virgin Mobile Casino Launches in the UK - 12th December 2011

One of the leading gaming companies in UK - Virgin Casinos has launched - Virgin Casino Mobile. A new offer for the customers, which allows players to play their favourite games while they are walking.

Virgin Casino Mobile was developed by two companies - Virgin Gaming, and the leading mobile marketing agency - Somo. The product itself is integrated in the to companies gaming platforms. For the future perspective the company plans to develop a multi-continent proposition for gaming partners all over the world. Since the product has been developed as a mobile website - it doesn't require App downloading. Virgin Games have also merged all play accounts together which means that players will be able to use the same account to play in Virgin Casino, Virgin Bingo, Virgin Poker and the Virgin Mobile Casino.

Virgin Games SEO, Simon Burridge stated:
"With Smartphone penetration now exceeding 40% in the UK, customers want and expect to be able to do on their phone what they do on their PC. With the launch of Virgin Casino Mobile we're simply responding to this demand.

While the gaming industry has been on the cusp of a mobile revolution for some time, 2011 has really been the year when the planets have aligned to make mobile gaming a more attractive proposition. For us we see it as the right time in the Company's life, the industry's life and the technology is ready. It's important for us as a company to follow the Virgin philosophy of being a customer-centric brand. We put customers at the heart of what we do and the mobile launch is yet another example of this. We can't afford not to do this - it's what our customers want and it's where the online gaming industry is heading."

CEO of Microgaming - Roger Raatgever said:
"We are very happy to continue expanding our strong share in the mobile market by providing Virgin Games with our suite of mobile content through QuickFire. In the past, we have seen joint success with our QuickFire partnership with Virgin Games so we are confident that together we can seize all the opportunities the mobile gaming market currently presents to providers. Microgaming has the strongest portfolio of Flash assets in the industry and our slick, user friendly content is sure to be a big hit with Virgin Games fans."

If you want to find out more information visit Mobile Casino on gamble.co.uk.

Mobile Gambling Apps Prove to be a Safe Bet

The world of apps has hit the world with a huge bang over the past year and now with mobile gambling on the rise has shown that apps are sticking around.

Ask anyone who has a smartphone and say do you use apps and the answer for the majority will be yes. Apps – full name applications have been kicking around for a while however only in the past year have they gained a massive following. This is largely down to smartphones becoming the must have gadgets and also the technology behind apps has come on leaps and bounds. Therefore it comes as no surprise that mobile gambling apps have proven to be a super safe bet.

Gambling apps mean that no matter where you are you can be in a casino playing which ever games you want all in the palm of your hands at a touch of a button (or touch screen) and this exact reason contributes to why gambling apps are such a popular hit. Although apps took a while to get off the ground this past year has seen a massive want for apps and just typing ‘gambling’ into the search bar of iTunes gives off four pages of results, that’s over 700 apps which indicates just how big the app market is.

It’s not just players benefiting from this but of course the gambling operators as its creating large profits for them whether it is through the price of the app or the advertising place on the app – so with this news of apps becoming bigger and better it begs a few questions.

What is the best mobile gambling app?

Well in short it is hard to give a definitive answer to that question, purely because the market is just so big. To start there are different types of smartphones which include the iPhone, Blackberry and HTC which means that apps play on different platforms.

What is the most popular mobile casino gambling app for free?

Looking specifically at the iPhone which is from the computer company Apple in which apps are available to download for free or for a fee from iTunes we can see that the most popular app available for free is the 15-in-1 Casino from developer Tim Jensen. As well as this app being available to download for free players do not have to play with any real money so everything is 100% free.

The app market is truly massive and something that you really have to be a part of to understand just how big it is. As well as gambling apps for casino, you can use apps for all of your sports betting needs. The sheer volume of apps just indicates why they are so popular and if things carry on as they are its only going to get bigger.