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UK
Casino Times
> Casino
Articles
28 December
2005
Gamble As You Go On Your Mobile
Phone
Mobile
phone casinos are likely to be a $4.5bn business by 2009,
according to experts, and the UK is one of the world
leaders. Grab a piece of the action with our online
guide.
Stuck on a railway
platform waiting for the train that time forgot? No problem
- just pull out your phone and keep boredom at bay by
dialling up a mobile
phone casino or
poker room.
Only a few years ago it
was impossible to imagine playing anything much more
complicated than noughts and crosses on a mobile, but
advances in phone technology have changed all that. Now,
wherever you are, you can download full-colour, all-action
versions of casino classics such as poker, roulette,
blackjack and slots to play for cash.
Mobile gaming providers
have been careful to build security into their games - a PIN
number protects your casino account from being plundered if
your phone is stolen, and multiple checks prevent children
signing up to mobile casinos. At least one major provider of
mobile gaming software guarantees that, if your identity is
ever stolen and used to set up an account, any winnings will
be paid to you and not the thief.
You don't even need to
worry what happens when you hit a reception dead area or you
train goes through a tunnel - the game software is
intelligent enough to cope with a sudden disruption like
that and save your game.
Depositing funds is at
least as easy as in a regular UK online casino - in some
cases easier, as you can often pay in straight from your
phone once you've made your first deposit through a secure
banking system to establish your credentials. Pay-out can be
less convenient, with some mobile casinos only prepared to
send your winnings through the post by cheque. Some are more
flexible - mobile casinos using MobVision's international
software specify the use of Neteller, a handy
online
wallet that allows
instant withdrawal of winnings.
This combination of
flexibility and convenience has led to a boom in mobile
gaming across the world - but casinos do not make up the
biggest slice of the action, mainly because legal
restrictions in some countries have restricted their growth.
The biggest market in mobile gambling is for lotteries,
followed by betting - casinos come in third, with a
projected quarter of the market by 2009. But it's a big
market - business analysts Juniper Research estimate mobile
gambling will be worth $19.3bn by the end of the
decade.
Dr Windsor Holden, author
of the Juniper report, Mobile gambling: casinos, lotteries
and betting, says: "Governments are generally less
censorious about lotteries than other forms of gambling,
with the result that mobile lotteries are likely to become
established fairly quickly in a greater number of
markets."
He says the market would
be larger still if regulations on mobile casinos and betting
are loosened or abolished: "These forecasts are based on the
premise that a number of countries - most notably the US and
China - will remain strongly opposed to the introduction of
most mobile gambling services in the short and medium term.
Should this situation change, then quite clearly the figures
would be revised upwards to reflect this."
The American hostility to
mobile gambling has handed market leadership to Europe and
the Far East, with the UK right up there as one of the world
leaders.
Speaking in April 2004,
Peter French, communications director at Casino Phone
Technologies - one of the pioneers in Java-based gambling
games for phones - said: "Our lawyers have told us that the
technology is pretty much ahead of international regulatory
systems and so there are a lot of grey areas. One great
plus, however, is the lead the UK is taking with regards to
this issue. They really get it and understand that by
passing comprehensive and user-friendly gaming legislation
they will reap the considerable financial benefits, and also
become the European centre of development for the
mobile-gaming industry."
Those looking to play now
at a mobile phone casino are recommended to give 7WIN7 a
try.
7WIN7 is a Mobile Phone
Casino - a real-play, Java based casino for UK mobile
phones.
New players need to
register at 7WIN7's website before downloading the casino to
your phone.
Click
Here To Join 7WIN7 Casino
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