If you're a Hollywood star, you're personal life is a lot less private than of 'normal' people. Now, with the upcoming of the online casinos, their privacy is violated even more, giving people the opportunity to wager money on the events of the lives of other people.
Melissa Conner just won $200 with her gamble against a 2005 Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes marriage. Unfortunately, she was less lucky with her bet on a baby boy for Jennifer Gardner and Ben Affleck. They had a baby girl and Conner lost about $25. Conner never plays the games of online casinos, but she bets an average of $20 once a week on happenings in the life of famous people. She was always addicted to celebrity gossip, and the opportunity to bet on them is just too hard for her to resist. Conner always read US Weekly and People and she figured she could make money out of her passion. So far, she's won a few hundred dollars from her habit.
Conner places her bets in online casinos focused on sports betting. Most of these online casinos have more wagered on the personal events of celebrities than on sports games. Calvin Ayres, President of one of the biggest online casinos focused on sports and celebrity betting, believes that the increasing bets on Hollywood stars is the continuation of North American society of becoming more and more celebrity-obsessed. He adds that for many Americans, betting on the lives of the rich and famous, is making them a part of the celebrity's life.
Last week, at Calvin Ayres' website, online casinos visitors could bet on whether 'American Idol's' Simon Cowell would divorce his wife Terri Seymour (where the majority bet yes) or whether promoter Brian Quintana would win his lawsuit against Paris Hilton (where the majority bet no).
For as long as there are online casinos, the betting-on-stars concept exists. Officially, making wagers on online casinos is illegal in the United States, and therefore people make there bets in online casinos outside US borders.
According to Anthony Munnelly, spokesperson for one of the Canada-based online casinos focused on celebrity and sports betting, the main reason for the growth in celebrity betting in online casinos is that 2005 was a busy year for the entertainment sector. There were numerous A-list celebrity breakups last year, including dream-marriage Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey and Brad & Jen.
Another reason for the rising bets on celebrities is the increase of women betting in online casinos. More and more women sign up at online casinos, and they are more likely to bet on celebrity-related bets than men are, having a natural passion for celeb gossip.
Besides betting on high-profile figures and award shows, many online casinos now take bets on business news and political events. For example, you can bet on several sites whether Google stock will split by April 30 or who will be the next president of the United States.
Online gambling sites have enjoyed unbelievable growth on the Internet in recent years, and this explosive expansion has come with much scrutiny and has created an incredibly crowded marketplace, as online casinos spring up left and right. The current state of online casinos is healthy and ripe with new developments and news play online casino | online currency trading | online sportsbook. The industry is always exciting despite mainstream society’s recent reservations.
The latest research on online casinos shows that there are still substantial growth opportunities in the online casino industry in months and years to come. A new study was recently released in collaboration by eMarketer and Harris Interactive monitoring the potential growth of online casinos.
The study’s online casino growth prediction parallels the predictions of other highly regarded and dependable surveys and studies conducted about the industry around the globe. The new study estimated that worldwide online casinos and gambling revenues were $11 bullion in 2005, up from about $8.5 billion in 2004.
So have the mass media and the common man or common woman embraced the legitimacy of online casinos due to these great revenues and the industry’s increasing popularity? Not so much.
In fact, ironically, a majority of survey respondents in the US and Britain answered that they’ve never spent any money gambling at casinos online. Harris Interactive reported that 95 percent of U.S. adults who surf the Internet, checking their Email, visiting websites, doing anything online, responded that they have never played at online casinos, and 94 percent say they have never played online poker. 97 percent of the research firm’s respondents say they have never made a single sports bet or similar wager online.
Online gambling sites are legal in Britain, but adult respondents in that country had similar survey results to those in the United States. 94 percent in Great Britain said they had never gambled at online casinos.
If these numbers are accurate, it means that there is still a large untapped market available for marketing and online casino advertising. Conspiracy theorists may say that it is human nature to avoid questions about gambling and self implication, and thus more people do gamble at online casinos than have admitted. Nevertheless, the online casinos market is still in prime shape for an even greater explosion in profit.
The legality of online casinos may hinder the future successes of the
industry. The confusing legal status of online gambling sites in the US is
currently under debate, and adults surveyed online are divided about whether the
US should ban online casinos or not. Last year, however, a survey was conducted
by Scooop, which said that 67% of adults in the United States were against
banning online casinos.
Survey results and research about online casinos remains contradictory. One
report said that as many as 15 percent of all US Internet users visited gambling
sites or online casinos at least once a month. Harris Interactive, on the other
hand, believes 95 percent of Americans never spent money at casinos online.