> >> The whole bulk of internet commerce is online gaming, > > > >Just a minute , but online brokerages and other sites around trading and > >stock markets make up a far bigger piece of internet commerce. > > huh? I'm guessing you have some interests in the world of trading, > so trading probably seems like a big thing, but perhaps surprisingly > "trading of stocks" (whether online or in bricks & mortar) is only a > niche market in the world Danny. Who trades stocks? Only a niche > of people.
Yes, I have been involved in stock trading since the mid eighties, so I know more about it than about casinos:-) You seem to be in the opposite position, so I looked up some numbers for you. Over half of the US households own stocks. While there are of course bigger industries like automobiles, most people do not buy their car over the net, while internet stock trading is a major chunk of all the stock trading that is being done. The casino and gambling industry turns out to be about 1/10th the size of the investment services industry. http://biz.yahoo.com/p/_servic-casino.html http://biz.yahoo.com/p/brokerconameu.html (The casinos have a 33 billion$ market cap, while financial services are 290 billion$) Market cap means how much money you would need to buy all the shares at their current price. > Online stock trading is really only etrade, its the only > company of any size (over a few thousand employees) in the field, > they barely make 100m a year and their sales are a fraction (a > quarter? a tenth?) of say amazon's. Etrade is only one of many online brokers. Actually Ameritrade is bigger. And most brick and mortar brokers have large online trading departments as well. Etrade sales were $2 billion last year, their profit $100 million. FYI, Amazon made $4billion in sales last year (and lost $150 million on it) > (I was just reading that one of the (lesser-known, no big deal) > companies that supplies online gaming software, in total JUST their > clients (ie the few casinos who hapen to use that particular type of > software), has paid out 5 billion ... > http://au.altavista.com/r?ck_sm=3c878af7&rpos=3&rpge=1&ref=3eb00020080&uid=2 6630f9fc884957a&r=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cryptologic.com%2Finvestor%2Fpdf%2Fcry00y r.pdf > ) > > > > > >> Of the 10 billion dollar [ -- some years ago -- ] online casino industry, > > > >Online casinos mostly don't publish numbers. > >This figure is the guestimate by some of the opponents of online gambling, > >who are crying loud that it should be stopped or regulated. > >Very unlikely that these would-be-regulators are not exagerating the > >number... > > A fantastic story, but you can look up for yourself the reports by > the big-5 accounting firms, check out their methodology and see what > you think. Or, use common sense and ask what most happens on the > internet Cryptologic.com They claim to one of the bigger players in online gaming software. Reading a little further on their site I learned the following: Quote: "Poker is the Internet's latest big growth market, accounting for just 5% of the $3.5 billion online gaming industry today and promises considerable upside potential." EOQ So they estimate the online gaming industry at $3.5 billion in 2003, not the $10 billion you mention. Furthermore I learn that casino games is only 30% of this total, which means the total turnover of the online casinos is about $1billion annualy. That seems more realistic already. (the rest of these $3.5 billion is taken by online betting and lotteries) You can also learn in their annual reports that the big land based casinos are starting to expand into the online business. They expect that only the very big players will be able to survive in the coming years. Cryptologic.com also mentions the 'alternative payments' they are now supporting in their softwares, so I guess it won't be long until TGC has to compete with the really big boys. What that could mean for TGC shares, I leave that to your own judgement. I have already said enough about it. I think everybody who is in these TGC shares would do well to have a look at their investors' site: www.cryptologic.com/investors/index.html It not only gives you a good idea how much information a company usually provides to its public shareholders, but you also learn a lot about the prospects for the online gaming industry. Reading some of their quarterly and annual reports gives you lot of background information. Dare I ask, but maybe jpm cannot answer the question: is TGC built on cryptologic software? They mention the launch of their multi player poker game was 6 months ago, so that made me think.... Danny --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Use e-gold's Secure Randomized Keyboard (SRK) when accessing your e-gold account(s) via the web and shopping cart interfaces to help thwart keystroke loggers and common viruses.
