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Asian online gambling expert predicts this is the road ahead
Jason Chan, a gambling industry expert in Macau told Marketplace this week that he is confident that more Asian countries will choose the regulatory path for online gambling. Asians have always been big bettors, he told the publication, and he is certain that online casinos will take off in the region.
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"It's all changed since the Philippines took the first [regulatory] step," he said. "Since the Philippines took the first step issuing gambling licenses, it [has] changed the attitude to Internet gambling of other countries."
Chan predicts other Asian countries will legalise online betting in the coming years, bringing relief to companies reeling from the U.S. crackdown on internet gambling financial transactions and looking for alternative target markets.
Since the ban, Chan has had dozens of enquiries from operators looking to Asia for a new home-and new gamblers, he told Marketplace in an article on Internet gambling.
Marketplace reports that Internet betting is still relatively new in Asia, but renewed focus on the region by companies that have abandoned the US market following the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act will add impetus to its development.
Writer Miranda Kennedy says that online casino companies have flocked to the Philipines capital Manila in the last year where the sole licensor of online gambling First Cagayan operates for the state. Internet gambling firms have already nearly filled up an office tower block in the city, she reports.
Kennedy visited one "live-over-the-internet" online gambling operation branded King World Casino, which apparently boasts some thousands of regular players.
She describes the studio surroundings: "....a plush-carpeted room full of casino tables. At each table there's a woman in her 20s, facing a couple cameras, with a TV tuned to a Chinese station behind her.
Every 30 seconds, while some women deal out cards for games like poker and Baccarat, other women roll dice. It's only 10:30 in the morning but already more than 6 000 gamblers in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are making bets on King World's website. It's very repetitive."
Kennedy comments that everyone is constantly smiling, in answer to which a company official explains that appearance is the most important factor when he's hiring, because he believes gamblers who might lose won't get as angry if they see a pretty face!
"The women earn about $300 a month, which is a lot higher than minimum wage in the Philippines," claims Kennedy.
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