According to Global Betting and Gaming Consultants, rising debt on credit cards will damage the online gambling industry by as much as USD$1.3bn in 2009.
The report also says that it will cost a further USD$2.8bn in 2010 and US$11bn between 2009 and 2012, causing the industry at best to grow by two per cent this year and three per cent in 2010.
GBGC’s chief executive Warwick Bartlett said: “The charge off rate is not all; credit lines are forecast to be cut by USD$2tn for 2009 in the US alone and the average default rate has risen to 10.4 per cent of people and continues to rise with further job losses.”
GBGC’s report states that the impact for internet gambling will be severe because the credit card is used to process 70 per cent of all transactions and the credit card crunch could be the pre-cursor to the consolidation the market has been expecting. Going forward, it says that there will be fewer new customers so the acquisition cost per customer is expected to rise.
