GAMBLING MOBILITY FOR THOSE OF US WHO JUST DON'T KNOW WHEN TO STOP
The wireless is the latest thing!

by scott davies
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"Wi-Fi" is the latest term being bandied about the technology commumnity these days, and well so it might. Wireless technology is predicted by many to be the fastest growing sector of Internet technology sales in the year 2004, including mobile phones, PDAs, and even the good old fashioned laptop, which will be sold with built in wireless connectivity capability. Many even go as far as to predict that by the end of 2007, wireless Internet activity will have overtaken the traditional forms of Internet connection.

So the inevitable question is: what are all these people going to be doing with their ubiquitous Internet capability? And the answer is obvious: the same as they were doing before from their silly old-fashioned living rooms. The main sectors of Internet activity are, always have been, and we suggest always will be the same no matter what the technology or what the location of the user: "adult visuals", ahem, and gaming. According to statistics from the Irish technology company Allatto, now more than 100 million people frequently use mobile phones as a gaming device, more than half of which are Asians.

So, although improvements in technology have not changed the main areas of human interest - namely sex and fun - technological developments have opened up the way for more advanced forms of gaming. We've moved on a long long way from the days of Snake - although, don't get me wrong, I still like Snake. According to Reuters, in 2003 Asia’s three fastest growing high-tech firms all came from the online game sector, an expansion largely fueled by the region’s rapid development of high-speed phone and Internet services. These technological improvements, which will be discussed below, have opened up the way in particular for wireless gambling to develop its hold on the market. Two new studies from Juniper Research conclude that gambling based content has the potential to generate revenues in excess of $6.5bn by 2006. According to RCR Wireless NewsWireless, gaming in the United States will generate more than $1 billion by 2006.

This is a formidable statistic and if true would make wireless gambling, or more specifically mobile phone gambling (especially as Internet capability more and more becomes a standard feature of mobile phone technology), the fastest growing Internet business sector. Allato predict that eventually a staggering 4.5 percent of all global mobile users will gamble to some extent - although we believe this statistic is somewhat put in perspective by the fact that many if not most of these people will be exclusively lottery players.

Nevertheless, this is an impresive opportunity for online gambling establishments, not to mention the convenience for those of us who have always dreamed about sitting on top of a gum tree and playing BackJack.

The improvements in wireless technology which is fuelling this business development are as follows. Firstly, cellphones are rapidly becoming better suited to online gambling, many of which are nowadays essentially mini PCs with their own built-in operating system and high-resolution screen. Secondly, the software within mobile phones is helping to facilitate online gambling. Smart phones now accept a version of the Java programming language, as well as a competing language for so-called applets, BREW, which is licensed by Qualcomm. Thirdly, mobile Internet usage is set to get considerably cheaper over the next few years. The combination of these three factors strongly suggests that the age of online gambling has only just begun.

Of course, no party is without its pooper. The development of the technology creates new opportunities for spammers. Also, the advantage of anonymity is currently counter-balanced by the issue of security. The Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) algorithm is currently used to protect wireless communication from eavesdropping, but it is generally considered to be inadequate. However, the upside to all this is that, largely due to the potential gains of wireless gambling, major wireless corporations are now viewing security as a strategic resource, and are therefore making it a spending priority. So, if you like - which many people won't - online gambling can eventually be thanked for the security and privacy of wireless communication.