The mainstream media and online gambling news reporting

Does the mainstream media misreport most of the online gambling news, giving them the wrong spin? Of course they do.

The mainstream media and online gambling news reporting First and foremost - always get your news from industry-related news portals with good record. And this applies not just to the gambling business, but any other.

Misinformation about the current events in the online gambling industry may caress your weary ears but it would not help you stay realistic and look at things for what they are worth. And when it comes to the online gambling industry, let's not forget that most of the big names in the online and offline media do not employ any experts in our field, but just copy-and-paste the latest AP or Reuters feed. You would be surprised how often major Internet portals decide to write a story on Internet gambling and would give the task to a reporter who has not even the basic idea of how this industry operates. So the next time you see a story about Internet gambling (positive or negative) at one of the big news reporting agencies - keep in mind that, most likely, the stories have been written by reporters who had to educate themselves about this decade-plus-old industry in a matter of a week or two.

To illustrate this better, let's take the way mainstream and other news agencies reported on the today's 888 Holding financial report.

There were headlines such as: "888 Shrugs Off UIGEA to Report Record 2006 Results", "888 weathering US online gaming ban", "888's profits soar despite US ban", etc. While it is obvious that no one actually read the financial report of 888 Holdings, the simple fact that it was for the year 2006, should have been enough to tune down the superlatives a notch. The company pulled out of the US market towards the end of October 2006, and last year, up to October, was a great year for online poker and online casinos in general. Not to mention that 888 Holding stock (LSE:888) was trading on September 29th 2006 at 146.50 GBp, and on April 28th 2006 at 240.25GBp compared to today's 120.50GBp. Although 888 Holdings is showing somewhat decent numbers for the Q1 2007 compared with Q4 2006, the company is nowhere near its position before the UIGEA.

Or you can take the headlines about Congressman Barney Frank's Internet gambling bill. A bill which in its basics does nothing but allow Indian tribes to run online casinos within their states was reported as "Congressman Seeks To Lift Online Gambling Ban", "Bill Would Lift Internet Gambling Ban", "Top House Democrat Makes Bid To Reverse Internet Gambling Ban", etc. The only thing that was missing, was the fact that the suggested bill did none of the above.

So in the future - don't believe the hype. It is recommended that you get your news from the few good online gambling portals.

04/30/2007