Wireless: Bets are down on gambling by phone

Wireless: Bets are down on gambling by phone By Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop International Herald Tribune SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2005

SINGAPORE Governments across Asia are lifting restrictions on gambling, and analysts forecast a huge increase in the number of new casinos built in the region. But while builders are pouring concrete, there is another frontier line opening up for gamblers here: cellphones. "Wireless devices are now ubiquitous and in Asia in particular, the percentage of advanced devices and the gaming on these devices is very high," said Matti Zinder, chief executive of Spin3, an Israel-based wireless casino system provider. Its main competitors in the sector include Virtue Fusion of Britain and another Israel-based company, Zone4Play. Informa Telecoms & Media forecast that global revenue for the mobile gambling industry would top $7 billion a year by 2010, compared with $1.2 billion in 2005, and while Europe is likely to remain the largest market for mobile gambling, generating $3.2 billion of annual revenue, it will be closely followed by the Asia-Pacific region, with $2.7 billion. North America, it says, "is the great unknown" because any expansion of legal gambling in the United States is uncertain. The number of users will increase to 201.4 million globally in 2010 from 48.1 million today, and to 96.7 million in Asia-Pacific from 22.1 million, Informa predicts. So far, mobile gambling in its various forms - lotteries, sports betting and casino-style games - has been restricted to a few countries in Asia. While China authorizes lotteries via mobile phones, it is still not allowing mobile casino gambling. In Hong Kong, players can bet on horse races and buy Mark Six lottery tickets via their local mobile phones, but again, no casino-style gambling is allowed. Only the Philippines and Macao are allowing remote casino gambling, said Benson Ong, general manager of WooWorld, a Singapore-based mobile and online entertainment content company in Asia. WooWorld is planning to introduce Spin3's Spinfone System in Singapore in December. The pay-per-download system allows users to download casino games they can play on the phones, playing on the network but for points rather than money. "As there is no legislation for remote gaming here, we have to start with play for fun. No money involved. We might call it casino trainer," Ong said, referring to the fact that two casinos will open in 2009 on the island-state. While WooWorld is already considering starting the game in Thailand and Malaysia next spring, Spin3 is seeking other partners in the region, especially in Macao and China. Japan is attractive because it does not have legal restrictions on mobile gambling, Zinder said, but he added that it is difficult to break into what is typically a closed business community there. This year, Two Way TV Australia said it would distribute Zone4Play's products, including mobile gaming and gambling, in Australia and New Zealand and indicated plans to expand in Asian markets out of Hong Kong. "Typically, the profile of mobile game play here is not one of long-term, high-value gambling. It's a short-term, burst of entertainment," Zinder said, pointing out that a typical player will be a male aged between 25 and 45, who only plays for 10 minutes at a time. "He's usually killing time while waiting for a bus or a meeting to start," he said. The cost depends on how much the carrier charges for a data connection. In Britain, which has been leading the way globally in mobile gambling, studies show players tend to prefer slot machine games. But Zinder anticipates Asians will favor "table" games like blackjack and roulette. "We're actually looking to develop some table games especially for the Asian market, like Pai Gow, Chinese Poker and possibly Mahjong, though it's a bit more complex as it requires several players," he said. With most mobile gambling games, users navigate the tiny screen with the phone's keypad. The result instantly tells them whether and how much they have won or lost.