Online gambling has been on the up, according to researchers. Internet poker alone is worth 2 billion a year, with a million players monthly. Card players have increased amoung males aged between 14-22 year olds.

The most popular online poker sites, as compiled by CasinoCity.com, include PartyPoker.com and Pacific Poker, based in Gibraltar; PokerRoom.com and Empire Poker, based in Kahnawake, Canada; and Poker World Online Cardroom, based in Jamaica. Meanwhile, PartyGaming, the parent of PartyPoker.com, is planning to go public this week on the London Stock Exchange in an IPO valued at $9 billion. According to press reports, the company reported a profit of $371 million in 2004 on revenue of $601.6 million. For the first quarter of 2005, PartyGaming reported a profit of $125 million.

Observers agree that the numbers are impressive -- at least for the leaders. "It's a big business, widely distributed and badly regulated," says Wharton legal studies professor Dan Hunter Indeed, the proliferation of online gambling operators such as the Gibraltar-based PartyGaming has opened a host of public policy, legal and e-commerce debates: What is legal? Do current laws on the books have any impact on Internet gambling? Can U.S. authorities realistically cut off Internet sites that operate offshore? Is it up to states to legalize online gambling?

"There's a lot of concern about whether this is legal, especially when it's a form of gambling that's accessible to adolescents," says Daniel Romer, research director of Annenberg's Adolescent Risk Communications Institute. He notes that casinos are limited to people over 21 years of age, and lottery tickets are sold to those 18 and older. While some online gambling sites check age, underage players can simply bluff about their real birth dates.

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