Monitoring the growth and prospects of the UK online casino and gambling industry, a new study carried out by the world's largest international market research and data firm, Research and Markets, predicts the UK's online casino gambling industry will have practically tripled its annual casino gambling revenue by the year 2010.  The internet betting market has been on a steady surge of yearly increases in the amount of UK players since its early beginnings little over a decade ago.  However, the next four years, as the study foretells, will surge at an even faster rate thanks to the recent passing and soon-to-be enacting of the UK Gambling bill.

In addition to the gambling revenue figures (which are predicted to grow from GBP 660 million in 2005 to 1.6 billion in 2010), the study understandably correlates an increase in the number of players logging into online casinos to bet real-money stakes.  The number of UK players who took part in online casino gambling in 2005 was 1.1 billion, which the study predicts will nearly double to 2.2 billion by the close of 2010 (a 25% yearly increase).

The study took into consideration many factors that have and will continue to facilitate the increase of players and revenue.  One of the most telling signs is how the industry as a whole views the future state of their existence.  Industry consolidation as well as the preparatory actions that companies take sheds insight on the likeliness of the industry expanding and growing.  And in this particular case, the industry looks as if it is preparing itself for an explosion of growth.  In 2004, there were nine major consolidation deals worth over GBP 200 million for the online casino industry.  In 2005, the amount of industry consolidation deals nearly quadrupled to thirty-two, upping the yearly company transaction value to GBP 3 billion.

The current rise in UK online casino gambling can be traced back to 2000, during which time, a rise in "hard-core gamblers" was most notably witnessed.  Hard-core gamblers are those who gamble less for the leisure than for winning big or making a living from it.  However, leisure online casino gamblers have begun to get wind of the industry as evidenced by the move of online casino and gaming site operators to mass market their online operations via simpler and more visually appealing casino gambling formats.  In short, the UK internet gambling industry is on its way of becoming a major competitor in mass entertainment, whether online or not.