 Online Casino
Group Does Extensive Research
The online casinos
industry is a $12 billion dollar a year venture, but has
nevertheless, despite its great profitability, been met with
regulatory and legal problems all across the globe in recent
times. Online casinos face big detractors in the United States,
as the US Congress has aimed to ban credit card companies from
operating with online casinos. Online casinos have also been the
subject of regulatory measures in Asia, and recently in Italy,
as many British online casinos are aiming to test this new
Italian ruling.
Online casinos in Antigua and Barbuda are also pressing the
United States to comply with a recent World Trade Organization
(WTO) ruling on the legality of online casinos. Nevertheless,
despite these negative aspects, there are some positive backers
of online casinos, including the recent World Series of Poker
champion, a player who began his career at online casinos, Greg
Raymer. Furthermore, there are many organizations now dedicated
to providing gamblers at online casinos information about the
most secure online casinos and the online casinos with the most
honesty.
One of these online casinos watchdogs, eCOGRA (eCommerce and
Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance), the online casinos
industry's player protection and standards authority, has
unveiled plans for one of the world's largest online gambling
research initiatives. It is expected to provide the first player
perspective following continued phenomenal growth of the
worldwide online gambling industry.
Researchers aim to capture the opinions of 20,000 players
through a quantitative internet based survey, supplemented by
qualitative focus groups in six of the industry's major markets.
Over 200 players in the US, UK, Japan, Canada, Germany and
Sweden will be asked for their opinions in the qualitative
exercise, in what is believed to be the first attempt to empower
the player community and put figures on anecdotal feedback about
their concerns and priorities for the industry.
Leading gambling research teams from the University of Las Vegas
and Nottingham Trent University start work on the research
immediately with the resulting 'eCOGRA Global Gambler Report'
launching in January 2007. It will provide the most
comprehensive insight into player's attitudes globally, with a
focus on what constitutes fair gaming, perceptions of operator
conduct, including customer service standards and will canvas
opinions on what further player protection measures can be put
in place.
Andrew Beveridge, CEO, eCOGRA comments, "We believe this is the
first time that the industry has tried to really identify what
its customers - the players - want and what motivates them.
Online gambling attracts people from so many diverse regulatory
regimes that it has been impossible up until now to conduct
research of any scale. It is essential however that player
concerns are fully understood by organisations like eCOGRA which
provide the only effective monitoring and resolution protection
procedures. We think the results will inform regulatory
decisions, operator conduct and even software design for years
to come. This announcement represents a step forward for
everyone and a real sign of a maturing industry."
|
