Report On Privatisation Of State Gambling

Published: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 Online-Casinos.com

RESEARCH REPORT ON PRIVATISATION OF STATE GAMBLING

Ireland's Research and Markets looks at the future for state monopolies

Research and Markets has made available a new study entitled "Privatization of State-Controlled Gambling Operators: Only Hype or a Reality in the Near Future?"

The company says that hard-to-control Internet gambling offers and the intensive debate about increasing liberalisation make life difficult for state-controlled operators. Although they recently won some legal "battles", according to many experts business will not get any easier for them, and the value of state-controlled operators will probably decrease rather than increase in the future.

This fact combined with tight budgets might lead a growing number of state shareholders to see the regular contributions to state budgets in jeopardy and prompt them to consider privatizing their gambling operations as soon as possible. Recent and current privatisations, such as those of the Greek OPAP and the UK Tote, show that this is not just idle speculation. About 73 percent of the experts surveyed expect that the number of privatised state gambling operations will continue to increase in the near future.

The report considers the advantages and disadvantages of privatising the gambling sector, together with many other complex issues. The results are based in part on a survey of more than 90 industry insiders who offered their unique insights. The report is coauthored by several respected experts, among them the investment bank Sal. Oppenheim and industry insiders such as Rob van der Gaast and Wulf Hambach.

More detail on the report is available at ( http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c25011 )