The Israeli publication Haaretz reported this week that online gambling is an Israeli success story.
“Israelis really like playing casino games, they’re quite hooked on it,” the publication quotes Ira Gladnikoff, vice president of Swedish online gambling company OnGame. She added that Israelis are particularly prevalent visitors on online gambling sites. “That’s why we will be running a site specially in Hebrew, despite it being such a small country.”
OnGame runs the online site Poker Room.com, considered the fifth-largest online poker web site in the world. Some 3.5 million surfing punters a day place around $13 million on bets.
The local potential is so great that OnGame will be launching a campaign to teach Israelis how to play the game.
“Initially we will open real [not online] poker classes in Tel Aviv,” Gladnikoff said,”with tutors brought specially to Israel from overseas. Poker is a game that requires 70 percent skill and 30 percent luck, so there is something worth learning.”
Americans account for the vast majority – some 80 percent, according to the VP – of OnGame’s customers,”but there are loads of Israelis that play on the site, and they are considered good players.”
Gladnikoff, a Swedish Jew who has family in Israel, thought up OnGame’s venture in Israel, for which the company is to spend $100,000 in the first stages.
Online poker is estimated at taking in some $2 billion a year in bets, and that’s just part of the phenomena of online gambling worldwide. Another major player in the field is Casino-On-Net, whose software was developed by Random Logic, ironically an Israeli company, based in Tel Aviv. Ironic because according to Israel’s strict gambling laws, punters are forbidden from gambling, even online. The company therefore decided to run its casino from Gibraltar, and the site is barred to surfers from Israel.
Another local online gambling company, King Solomons, found another way round the legal restrictions. The company, which takes in bets of $1.5 million a month and makes profits of $400,000 to $600,000 a month on its site, kings.co.il, runs its online casino from South Africa. Its support services though are available in Hebrew