With online gambling expanding into several countries and drawing more players each year, a recently published report by Screen Digest shows the UK as being a pivotal foundation for the global online casino gambling industry in the years to come. In what could be logically surmised simply from the regulatory efforts the UK is exerting on the internet betting industry, Screen Digest's report is a culmination of gathered historical data on gaming operators as well as historical statistical evidence and forecasted data until the year 2010.

The report ascertains that online casino gambling from 2000 until recent times has been chiefly fueled by "hardcore" gamblers. The forecasted trend, however, is predicting that the majority of revenue generated by online casinos is going to come from leisure internet bettors, who are beginning to respond to a mass marketed industry. In the UK, where internet betting is deemed legal, the willingness of citizens to place bets online is much greater. This particular trend has already begun to show since the start of 2006, which analysts other than Screen Digest are predicting to continue and gradually encompass the industry.

More simplified betting formats, especially in gaming and lottery, are able to get their message and product to a broader audience, which is in turn, increasing the number of partakers. The demand is so large, in fact, that for the first time in the relatively short history of internet betting, the study found that the online casino gambling industry is beginning to compete with other established forms of mass entertainment. Covering all the minutia of previous and forthcoming trends, the report cites several sources and figures, such as a predicted two-fold plus increase in overall UK spending at online casinos and betting sites from 660 million (2005 figures) to over 1.6 billion in just five years.

Other findings in the report draw attention to the fact that the UK online gaming operators participated in thirty-two individual large-scale consolidation deals - up from only nine deals in 2004. Such a consolidation rate signifies an expanding and thriving industry, characteristically marked by a handful of operators who continue to broaden their individual reach into other countries throughout Europe and now in the Far East.

All online casino and gaming operators who were surveyed in the study were either based in the UK or had a target demographic of UK bettors. Some of the operators surveyed included, Will Hill, Victor Chandler, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power, Coral Eurobet, Stanley Leisure, BetFair, GameBookers, Party Gaming, 888 Holdings and Empire Online.