Gaming has in recent times become a mass market entertainment industry. It is in par with television, music and movies.
Gaming entertainment is synonymous with the casino business. A staggering $ 500 billion is bet on games and races every year. Las Vegas, Macau and Atlantic City are the top three gambling destinations in the world today. From 1940 to 1976 Las Vegas had monopoly on the casino business.
Today there are approximately 450 commercial casinos which are run by private companies. These casinos are spread across 19 states in the United States alone. The gaming entertainment industry has provided over 700000 jobs and pays gaming privilege taxes of over $2 billion.
The American Gaming Association overlooks the United States Gaming industry association. The organization was founded in 1995. The goal of the AGA is to promote, educate and lobby on behalf of the gaming entertainment industry through education and advocacy. The AGA sponsors the Global Gaming Expo each year and made its debut in Macau in June 2007.
In Japan, gambling is banned by the criminal code. However there are other forms of gambling such as public sports, lottery, toto or football lottery and pachinko which is a slot machine game. As casinos can boost the tourist industry there are recent developments in Japan to open casinos.
Gambling which is legal in Macau was legalized by the Portuguese government since the 1850’s. Macau has a total of 28 casinos. The most famous among them is The Ventician Macau. They operate under a common set of rules and are under government franchise. Apart from casinos horse racing and greyhound racing are famous in Macau.
The gaming entertainment industry in South Africa saw a change after it was legalized in 1996 where casinos, national lottery and other forms of gaming were established.
The gaming entertainment in United Kingdom is regulated by the gambling commission under the gambling act of 2005. 'Bigo or housey housey a game popularized during the Second World War is famous in United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. The national lottery is UK’s largest lottery.
The casinos as a gaming entertainment improve a nation’s economy by attracting large number of tourists and increase revenue for the economy. It also provides employment to a large number of people and has been of part of a nation’s culture for many decades.
Having looked in detail at the casino business over the world, it is important to mention that the gaming entertainment industry also includes other sectors. To mention few of them
The video game market alone is set to become worth close to $ 3 billion by 2011. Research by ABI indicates that online and video gaming is becoming popular. The three major manufacturers of video games are North America, Japan and United Kingdom. The Japanese Nintendo is the 8th largest software company in the world.
Online games range from simple text based games to incorporating complex graphics and virtual worlds which are populated by many players simultaneously. Online communities have made online games a social activity. Web based graphic technologies like Flash and Java have allowed browser games to become more complex.
