America has a relatively new online gambling addiction: betting on entertainment events and stars such as the Oscars, the winner of "American Idol" and even on whether or not will Mel Gibson break any of his probation's conditions. Around half of the entertainment and novelty gamblers in US last year were women, as opposed to most of the new online casino players who were men.
A senior analyst of an online casino and entertainment betting site says: "Women are so obsessed with celebrities these days, they spend so much time reading the gossip pages and are so invested in it that they figure they may as well put down money since they are following it so closely anyway".
At his online casino site, women represent just third of its 400,000 registered users but make up 45 percent of the entertainment bets. General online casino industry surveys show that women comprise just 32 percent of total online casino bettors. And although entertainment and novelty betting remains just a small piece of the overall online casino business, according to a survey by the American Gaming Association, gamblers are showing a deep appetite for the category. So more and more online casino sites are "doing their homework" in order to keep up with the entertainment betting demand. |
