In this article I will analyze these two industries, trends, regulations, profits and overall status.

It is clear that there is a battle going on between the online casinos to land based casinos. I took for example one of the biggest and strongest land based casinos - MGM ( $7.7 B) and one of the successful online casino company-888 Holdings ($1 B).

These companies are good examples since they are leaders and reflect the industry very well.

The war started a long time ago but I think it escalated in 2006 with the coalition of anti-gambling conservatives, together with Las Vegas interests and law enforcement which forced the government to ban online gambling.

Analysts estimated, at that time, that the amazing success of online casinos was over. Traded online casinos went down and everybody thought they were finished but it turned out to be the biggest mistake ever. Since then, land based casinos have been losing their power to online casinos.

Countries all over the world have realized that it is better to regulate online casinos rather than ban them because people will always find ways to gamble and to play the casino and banning them loses millions in taxes.

Take for example MGM

MGM together with Dubai world fund (which is a government investment fund. Its assets under management are excess of $100 billion and the revenue was $10.6 billion to in 2006) are short of funding in their $3.5 billion ( still pending) project "CityCenter" in Las Vegas due to the reluctance of the banks to give such a big loan to the project. German Deutchebank and Suiss Credit are among those banks.

The raising of finance for e $3.5.billion projects should have been completed

by end of June 2008. The cost of the project is $100 million a month.

"At present, no company in America has been able to borrow such sums from the banks" said James Maren, President of MGM Mirage in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

Just look at the trading charts of MGM. Earnings per share went down nearly 50 for the last year due to a decrease in players and a decrease in earnings.

There are several reasons for this:

First, the economy is in bad shape, gas prices are constantly rising, inflation is rising and US debt is more than $9.4 trillion and rising $1 billion a month. The stock market is also not doing well.

Second, it has become very expensive for Americans to travel to Vegas. When you pay more than $4 a gallon, you don't drive and you don't fly, simply because you rather save this money then spend it on traveling.

Third, online casinos are on the rise and taking a lot of players from them. With fast internet connections, smart and sophisticated online casinos and huge numbers of casinos guides, you have everything you need you need to optimize your bet.

888 HOLDINGS

888.com is one of the successful online casino operators on the web. It trades on the London Stock Exchange; market value is about $1 billiard.

Their financial report says it all. It shows an increase in the number of new players and every quarter the revenue reaches new levels. Just look at the chart!

A picture is worth more then 1000 words…

In conclusion:

· Online gambling sites may soon be welcomed again in the U.S . It is only a matter of time until online casinos return to operate and accept US players. It was a huge mistake to ban them and now the government realized it.

· Online casinos are winning the war against land based casinos, especially those in Las Vegas.

· For gamblers - MGM could be seen as a decent long-term investment after falling 70% in the last year/

by www.rockyslots.com