US gambling revenue dropped  15% in May. In Las Vegas, the percentage is 16.4%. As for Atlantic City, the casinos gambling revenue down 11% in June, comparing with the same month of the last year (a single casino shows an increase in revenue, Harrah’s Resort Casino). In Illinois, gambling revenue was down more than 20 percent in June compared to June 2007.

The analyst Robin Farley of UBS wrote in a report that “the decline in Strip revenues is worse than the period immediately following Sept. 11, 2001 and except for January 2002 is the worst monthly performance in more than 10 years…The weakness in gaming revenues was not confined exclusively to the Strip as the Las Vegas locals market declined 19.5% in May, bringing year to date revenues down 8.7%.”

Sands, Wynn, Boyd… everything is sliding.

“The decline appears to be accelerating,” said Nick Danna, an analyst with Stern Agee & Leach.

Jim Murren, president of MGM Mirage, says that this drop is a temporarily situation, an usual cycle.

For Atlantic City, the most important decline is for Trump Marina Casino, 23%.

For the casino games, the reports say that table games and slot machines fell down almost the same in Las Vegas, but slots declined more in Atlantic City.

I am not a specialist, but I think that there are some important factors, external to the gambling industry, that influence it. And one of the most important, if not the most important, is the economic crisis. Including the petrol price, unemployment, the real estate crisis, as well as the reduction in flights as airlines cut back their services.

A second factor is the tourist market, influenced also by the economic crisis but not only. The restrictions implemented last years by US for the external tourists is, maybe, more important for the tourist market than the crisis.

And, to not forget the smoking ban, that will decrease even more the gambling revenue.

The crisis in US gambling industry will be increased by the casino and hotel investments started by the operators, for which it will not be possible to make the payments to the banks (for ex., Tropicana Entertainment defaulting on $2.7bn debts).

In fact, when you start an isolationist policy, including for the online gambling market, you have to take into consideration the secondary effects that can become major effects, in time.

Gambling revenue will grow to $155 billion in 2012 from a 2007 revenue of $114 billion with an annually rate of 6.5 percent per year, says PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in a report released this week.

Asia, and especially Macau, will be the world’s fastest growing gambling region.

In accordance with this report, the US revenue will decline in 2008, due to the mortgage crisis and high gas and travel price. But, starting with 2010, Las Vegas will expects a new raise.

Online gambling and sports betting is expected to have a 4.9% yearly increase in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and a 4.5% yearly increase for the US tribal casinos. The most important increase for US is predicted for sports betting, rising 7% to $7.6 billion in 2012.

An already tested method to defeat the online gambling companies started to act again, after Bodog.

1st Technology made a complaint against several companies including Digital Gaming Solutions SA, Costa Rica International Sports, Action Poker Gaming Enterprises and SBG Global; two Norwegian companies: Playsafe Holding AS and eCom Enterprises; and Digital Gaming Network, Ltd., which is based in Curacao, for the inftingement of a US patent. The result could be the confiscation of the domain names and default judgements.

Gambling 911 tells us that the complaint, filed in a Missouri Supreme Court, is considering the U.S. Patent No. 5,564,001, titled “Method and System for Interactively Transmitting Information Over A Network Which Requires Reduced Bandwidth”.

What is interesting is that this kind of action is taken against companies that are not under the jurisdiction of the US. But, in order to be able to fight against the online gambling, it is used an intermediate for the complaint and the fact that many international institutions that are implied in the domain name and Internet regulation are based within US, so they are considered as being under the US jurisdiction.

I do not know if this US patent it is a legal and enough argument against the online gambling companies. But why they didn’t act before the UIGEA, when US was accepting the online gambling?

And more than this, it seems to me that during the last years the US patents grown in a such manner that soon there will be very few activities on Internet that will no infringe a patent or another (in an insurance related web site, I was forced some time ago to change the metatag “farm insurance” because it is patented by an US company).

And they have even the power and the tools to impose their own rules, as long as the most important specific institutions are under the US jurisdiction.

So, it seems that the Internet is no more a “worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol”, but a patent where we are accepted temporarily, as long as we do not bother the owner.

The new borders of the Internet started with the online gambling. Internet meant, at its beginning, freedom of information, products and services. Now, it keeps from less to less this initial meaning.

I am a fun of the online gambling, especially online poker, but now I see it like an animal in a forest hunted from all the sides by the hunters/authorities, and having from less to less place to move. Unfortunately the real reason is not the same with the official one. If they care about children, pathological gamblers or unfair online casinos, there are possible laws that can be implemented. And there will be no more pornography, violence in movies, alcohol, a.s.o. The real reason is that the money have to be kept in the respective countries. Why to let a foreign company to collect the money from the citizens of a country, when the government of that country can collect the money by taxes from the local casinos, or even exercise a monopoly on the gambling games and collect directly the money.

Finland confirms my prediction for online gambling for this year but, after the previous experience with Germany, they adopt a different and more subtle strategy, especially for online poker. In accordance with a Finnish draft law from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and commissioned from the University of Joensuu, the losses claimed by Finnish online gamblers would be taken back from the online poker rooms, or from the payment processing companies. This way the online gambling operators will be forced to block the Finnish players

Finland is the 4th country in the world with about  €150 million in gambling expenditures annually.

If I am right and the main reason for the ban of the online gambling is the will of the states to keep the money within the respective countries, I think the e-commerce itself is in great danger, especially from the countries that have a negative balance for e-commerce.

My predictions about the boom of the gambling industry in Russia come true sooner than I expected. Russia’s Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov set up a gambling zone, Azov-City, in the Scherbinovsky district of Krasnodar area and the Azov district of Rostov region. A budget of about 18 billion rubles for tourism and recreation facilities in the South Federal District from 2008 through 2012.

In accordance with Kommersant, the gambling area will cover 20.022 million sq meters, including a portion of the Krasnodar area and the Rostov region in southern Russia.

There will be four gambling zones in Russia by July 1, 2009: the Kaliningrad region, the Altai Republic, the Primorie area and to the territory on the border of the Rostov region and the Krasnodar area.

“We offered the name of Port-Katon but after discussion with the Krasnodar Territory the name of Azov-City has been agreed. We hope it will remain after the government issues a decree on the order of creation of the special gambling zone on the border of the Rostov Region and the Krasnodar Territory” – the Rostov Region economics minister Mr. Victor Deryabkin said.

“The Internal Affairs and Regional development ministries have already given the conclusions. The Economic development and Legal affairs ministries conclusions are left” – the minister stressed.

“By the end of January 2008 they will prepare requirements specification for architectural-planning works and by Summer next year ground areas will be probably given to develop certain objects of the future gambling zone ” – the Rostov Region economics ministry said.

Azov (Russian: Азо́в, IPA: [a'zof]) is a town in Rostov Oblast, Russia, situated on the Don River just sixteen kilometers from the Sea of Azov, which derives its name from the town.

Unfortunately, another prediction come true at the beginning of this year: we will have a bad, if not very bad, year for online gambling. It seems that Russia will ban online gambling, too.

It seems that it is very hard to make predictions on gambling, this year even more difficult than the other years, and online gambling much more difficult than the classical gambling.

008 will be a very good year for the land casinos. Las Vegas has some big problems that will allow to other entertainment centers to compete successfully with the Sin City.

After several years of standby, Atlantic City will know in 2008 a new development period by building new casinos and improving the old ones.

But Macau will be the star of this year, with the most new projects for casinos, hotels and entertainment resorts. Cotai Strip will be the new center of the gambling world.

The Europeans will have their own Las Vegas too, soon. Gran Scala in Spain is a very ambitious project. This year we will see if it is a certitude for the next years, or just a chimera.

And, to not forget Russia! Russia made no major step till now, but it is very close to invest a lot of money. And, what about the Arabian gambling? Do you bet on the development of a very powerful casino entertainment center in Dubai? The partnership with MGM Mirage is just the beginning. I know about the Islamic rules, but I bet on it.

For me, a big surprise for this year is Harrah’s Entertainment. No big new projects and, at the end of the last year, the bomb (in fact, expected since a year ago): new owners for the casino and hotel resort chain of the world’s largest provider of branded casino entertainment. The surprise is even bigger taking into consideration the successful act of online gambling ban (see UIGEA). So, my prediction is that MGM Mirage will become soon #1 in the casino entertainment industry.

As for online gambling, very bad news, unfortunately. After UIGEA in US, Canada intends to ban the online gambling too, Germany already announced the interdiction for online gambling as well as for advertising the web/based gambling. There are signs that Italy will be soon with Germany on the same part of the barricade and, from the East European countries, Romania has a draft law to ban online gambling and any other related activity since two years ago, so it is possible to discuss it very soon. In this situation, and after the agreement with US, the European Commission it is possible to change its rules about online gambling even this year. I see UK the only country of the European Union that will allow the online gambling in the near future.

It is very interesting how United States, after deciding to ban the online gambling, and by means of the media, it is very close to change the mentality and principles of the whole world about online gambling. Most of the people considered online gambling a way of entertainment as any other, two years ago. Now, the same people are very convicted that they always was against online gambling and online casinos.

A special situation for online poker. If the online poker associations from US will earn the battle to allow this game on Internet (and it is a very powerful lobby for this), all the other countries, including Germany and Canada, will say that they never banned the online poker and will make an exception from the rules. But this will not happen, anyway, this year.

But we will see a spectacular increase of the skill games.

In fact, in the United States the future of the online gambling will be decided during and after the elections stated for this year, 2008. So, when you will vote, take into consideration your own option for online gambling, too.

(These predictions are based on my own experience, do not include any other considerations, I do not claim to be in accordance with the future events, I am not implied in the gambling industry except as a publisher, and I do not advice you to use it)