Irish Gaming Association find huge Casino industry potential
13th October, 2008
Ireland has had a long tradition of gambling with millions betting on the horse racing every weekend or placing money on football, playing poker and other casino games. One of the largest bookmakers in Europe, Paddy Power, originated in Ireland and have keep hold of their traditional brand heritage.
However there are few large land based casino in Ireland and a recent report showed their was huge market potential for a casino industry.
The report was commissioned by the Irish Gaming and Leisure association, and discovered that a regulated land based and online casino industry could create over 3000 new jobs and $68 million in revenues.
John Lawlor from DKM said, “Currently, the Irish land-based casino sector is of modest size, representing approximately 1.5 percent of total gambling GGR and employing in the region of 500 people,”
“Our assessment of the sector internationally indicates that there is scope for this to increase significantly in a properly-regulated environment.”
In current economic climate government ministers and economists need new job vacancies as much as possible and the regulation of online and land based gambling would certainly provide this.
David Hickson from the Gaming and Leisure Association of Ireland, said in a statement,“There has been no previous quantitative examination of the size of the casino gaming sector in Ireland nor the potential for future growth based on international trends,”
By Jamie
