Pick a number - mobile gaming heats up

Gambling over mobile phones is expected to increase tenfold in terms of overall market size over the next four years, hitting $19.3bn by 2009.

Analysts at Juniper Research say that lotteries will lead the way with gross revenues of $7.9bn globally because they are often more acceptable to governments than other forms of gambling. Sports betting and casino-style gaming should come in second and third with forecasts of $6.9bn and $4.5bn annual take by that time.

Asia-Pacific is set to lead the way on 39 per cent of revenues with Europe in a close second at 37 per cent, Juniper reckons. However, should laws on gambling be relaxed in either China or the US, those percentages are likely to change noticeably.

For 2005, the market size is set to edge past $2bn, a figure that includes about $800m spent on sports betting.