While there can be no denying the mushrooming popularity of online gambling, there are some who believe that the rapid growth of the online gambling industry is bound to peter out soon, arguing that its record growth cannot not be sustained for long. There are others, however, who point to developing new technology that will make the online gambling more even more accessible and, therefore, even more popular. More specifically, new technology such as 3G cell phones, faster, cheaper broadband, and interactive television technology where the T.V. doubles as a computer, will likely make gambling over the Internet simpler, more accessible, and faster. In turn, this will result in a larger segment of society playing at online casinos.

Global Betting and Gaming Consultants (GBGC), experts on the online gambling industry, are proponents of this second view as Warwick Barlett, lead partner at the consulting firm, said “betting will be so easy from your home that future growth is assured”.

As further proof of GBGC’s prediction, online gambling companies, Sporting Bet and BetandWin, have seen their stock values growing in leaps and bounds in the past year. The remarkable popularity of online poker, is no doubt, a driving force in the two companies’ success since both experienced a surge in their company stock values after either the acquisition of a poker site or forming a partnership with a poker site operator. The figures bare this out; SportingBet saw a 358 percent increase in stock prices within the last 12 months, with 256 percent growth incurred since January 2005, alone. SportingBet acquired the online poker site, Pacific Poker, in the final quarter of 2004. Also, BetandWin jumped to 19 th place in April, up from January’s 42 nd place on GBGC’s Global Gambling 50 index of the top Internet gambling companies. BetandWin enjoys a partnership with the Poker Pulse network.