Jim Evans places bets on football matches and horse races through his mobile phone, spending about US$80 a month. Because of his hectic lifestyle, he spurned the betting shop and logged off internet gambling.
Evans, 32, who works in the mobile phone industry, switched to mobile gambling from internet gambling as soon as it became available. "I find it more convenient to gamble on the phone because I travel a lot and can take it everywhere," he says.
Once he had registered and set up an online account -- which can take a day -- Evans could download his preferred Java-enabled gambling application on to his Orange mobile, browse games and the odds, and place bets. The money is immediately debited from his account.
So forget the hype about super casinos proposed in Britain's new gambling bill -- mobile phone gambling looks set to trump them all, providing an addition to many consumers' mobile entertainment package.
A new report by Juniper estimates that by 2009, mobile gambling services will generate revenues of more than US$19.3 billion, nearly one-third of all mobile entertainment revenues. And that's a conservative estimate. "Given the ubiquity of mobile handsets, and the desire of many [gambling] providers to exploit this, then potentially the resulting sales could be substantially higher," the report says.
Java-enabled graphics, color-filled screens, technology that invoices on the monthly phone bill, and 3G networking combine to provide a service that rivals traditional gambling methods.
The report says: "More than 90 percent of the population in the UK and US have at some time played a lottery in its traditional paper form. Coupling this huge market with the immediacy and penetration of the mobile phone is a logical and lucrative proposition."
Sports betting, already popular, is set to surge on the mobile platform. "It may offer the opportunity not only to allow players to place a bet about the outcome of a particular event, but also to dynamically bet through their handset as to the outcome of particular events within the game."
Its success depends on the availability of GPRS or 3G for most mobile users, but at the rate this technology is advancing, this seems likely, the report says.
However, as only 14 percent of UK adults partake in casino gaming (including slot machines), this area of the market is likely to remain a niche. While complex graphics will allow consumers to play games such as poker, roulette, craps and black jack, either for fun or for money, "regulatory proscriptions are likely to hinder or prevent the launch of casino-style services in many countries."
Current proposed gambling legislation has divided industry experts. The government says reform is essential: "Almost all relevant British gambling legislation predates the internet. Nobody had such a powerful communications system in mind when that legislation was being enacted."
Most of the bill, the government says, regulates remote gambling -- on mobile telephones, the internet and interactive television -- which specialists suggest 800,000 adults per month participate in.
"Our controls on commercial gambling are being undermined by technology," a spokesperson says. Once the bill is made law, a gambling commission will award remote service providers with licenses after conditions are met.
These will include secure billing, and credit and age checks. "For the first time it will be a criminal offence to allow a child to play [remote gambling]," says the spokesperson.
But others are not convinced it will be enough to prevent this and other forms of corruption. A Gamblers Anonymous (GA) press officer says he has been to many legislation meetings over the years: "Every word of warning ... has been ignored."
While GA doesn't distinguish between types of gamblers, the organization has not seen many mobile phone gambling addicts. Yet.
"Our membership reflects what is happening in society ... and there's normally a gestation period before they arrive at GA. In a couple of years time, the make-up of our membership will reflect the number of people gambling on their mobile phones. A few years ago, the number of internet gamblers was few and far between; now it is very different."
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day