US-barred gambling set to roll in Asia

"We couldn't play at PartyPoker because it was closed to Sunil following the ban on online gambling in US," said Akhil, "but that's okay. 3Patti was as much fun." Akhil and his friends were not the only ones making that shift that night. According to 3Patti.com, which claims to be the largest Indian online gambling den, for about a week leading to the Diwali night on October 21, the site recorded its highest hits from Indian clients (that was second only to the number of hits from the US) since October 13, the day President George W Bush signed a law that seeks to ban most online gambling and criminalizes funds transfers in the US. 3Patti is reportedly planning to invest more in India as industry sources say several other sites, too, are shifting operations out of the US and may be heading toward India and elsewhere in Asia.

"The [online gambling] companies, particularly the large ones with large resources, that have ceased operations in the US have all said that they would refocus their efforts on other markets, and particularly the Asian markets," said Eugene Christiansen, chairman of Christiansen Capital Advisors LLC, a US-based consultancy firm that provides gambling and entertainment-industry analysis and management services.

The exodus in fact has already started. On the day Bush signed the new law, Sportingbet for instance, a UK-based online-gambling firm that derived about 56% of its business from the United States, sold its US operations to an Antiguan company for US$1 and said "it is focusing on Europe and the rest of the world including Asia".

While closing their operations to all US customers, others such as PartyGaming and 888Holdings too said they would be moving elsewhere. Indeed, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act may be making online gaming firms rush out of the US, but experts say a new Internet-gambling ban won't keep bettors from looking over their shoulders for long, and they may just turn to offshore sites and overseas payment services out of the law's reach. The impact of the ban, then: online gaming is all set to bloom in Asia.

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