Online Gambling: Today’s Possibilities and Tomorrow’s Opportunities

With the development of new information and communication technologies (ICT), above all computers and the internet, new forms of online commerce have emerged. The gambling industry began using the power of the rapidly developing virtual market by offering its services in online casinos. The phenomenon of online gambling has encouraged researchers to direct their work into various areas, including the characteristics or profile of online gamblers. In light of the data on the growth of the market for online gambling it is evident that, in the relation between the many types of traditional and online gambling, visits to traditional casinos predominate, as do predictions about the development of the internet. We therefore decided to examine the characteristics of gamblers in traditional casinos and to determine what percentage of them also gamble online, as well as to establish their profile. The aim of the research was to determine how their characteristics in respect of the development of the internet and the growth of the market have influenced the subsequent development of traditional and internet casinos. We predict that both types of gambling, each in its own way, will compete for gamblers. For traditional casinos the best solution seems to be opening their own online casinos; online casinos will have to remain abreast of the development of the internet and communication technology.