While Minnesota lawmakers debate whether or not they should allow more cities within the state to legalize gambling, (including Canterbury Park and the city of Bloomington), gambling is already headed their way whether it is legalized or not. With the advent of mobile gambling, residents of Minnesota and any other state else will be able to just pick up their cell phone, download a casino-style game, and wager real money.

The major drawback for Minnesota and, of course, any other state, is that they will not collect any of the revenue generated from mobile gambling. Another drawback of mobile gambling is that the ease and convenience that gambling over the cell phone presents, will make it too easy for people with gambling addictions, or people with potential gambling addictions, to feed their habit.

The new service, which allows players to play just about anywhere at anytime, is a new program offered by PokerRoom.com and lets players into games just by picking up a cell phone. So far, PokerRoom.com only offers Texas Hold’em poker and slot machines, according to Ira Gladnikoff of PokerRoom.com, but this may change in the future.

Mobile gambling has been available in Europe for some time now but it is only now starting to become popular in the U.S. and industry analysts are predicting that it will become increasingly popular. While people who have been gambling in casinos or over the Internet will certainly be drawn to mobile gambling, there is a new breed of gambling that mobile gambling also attracts. These gamblers are people who have never set foot inside a casino to gamble so their first experience gambling is through the use of a cell phone. According to Brian Cooley of CNET, gambling satisfies the more personal aspect of gambling. “Cell phones are personal, gambling is personal”, Cooley explained. “They go together in the consumer’s mind. So it’s the next big thing”. Cooley also called mobile gambling “a casino in your pocket”.

For those doubting that mobile gambling will be the next big thing in America, the dollar amount estimated that Americans are going to spend on mobile gambling by 2009 is close to twenty billion dollars. People will be able to bet anywhere from fifty cents to three hundred dollars a hand. In addition to the optimistic predictions, the issue about the illegal status of online and mobile gambling is more of a non-issue, since legal authorities in the U.S. do not have the motivation or resources to go after individual gamblers.