Although the number of participants in this year's World Series of Poker main event were down from last year, studies are now correlating an increase in traffic at online gambling sites and web-based casinos during June with the anticipation of the WSOP main event currently taking place. According to web monitoring statistics drawn up by comScore Inc., online gambling activity increased by 13% while WSOP satellite tournaments took place during the month of June.

The increase in activity equated to 12.5 million people logging online to search out betting sites, including some 1.6 million visitors to the popular online poker room, Poker Stars. Although these stats cannot verify deposited funds and the exact number of bets placed, they show that an interest and desire to gamble online is still quite strong. Further discrediting the effectiveness of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, an increase in gambling activity is certainly indicative of a need for widespread regulation.

According to comScore's stats, which were not just limited to online gambling sites, the top traffic collector online for June, 2007 was Yahoo!, followed by Google, who attracted over 124 million visitors. Other notable increases in traffic went to Apple Inc, whose launching of the iPhone understandably caused heightened interest in consumers. Regarding advertising and online marketing sites, Advertising.com brought in the most unique visitors by reaching 88% of Web surfers, while Value Click moved up one spot to take the second position.

While it has been noted by gaming analysts that a damper has not been put on the demand for online casino gambling, tangible statistical evidence has been lacking regarding the extent of current demand. Supply has obviously been cut back with several online casinos, payment processors and poker rooms dropping out of the U.S. facing market. Of those poker rooms that have decided to stay in the market, the landscape of tournament satellites has shifted somewhat. Instead of directly buying WSOP seats for satellite tournament winners, online poker rooms are now forced to give the winners a cash equivalent for entering the tournament on their own volition, which explains the decrease in sign-ups at the WSOP. Demand to gamble online, however, is obviously still strong.