Gambling Trends: Online Casino Revenue Rises

Summer is always a good time to evaluate revenue trends in the gambling world, as businesses slow down and people take a break from the daily grind to go on vacation.

And if revenue reports from some of the big names in the gambling industry are anything to go by, it seems that online casinos are on the way up while some land-based casinos are heading in the opposite direction.

PartyGaming, one of the world's largest online gambling companies and best known as for its online poker room PartyPoker, has reported great news heading into summer with a 26 percent increase in overall revenue for the first half of 2010. The biggest increase came from its bingo site, which earned it 25.8 million Euros during that period, up from just 1.2 million Euros during the first half of 2009.

In some less fortunate news for the gambling industry, two of the biggest names in Vegas - Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and MGM Resorts International, reported drops in revenue.

Harrah's reported a loss for a second consecutive quarter, with revenue falling more than 2 percent to $2.22 billion, while MGM reported a second-quarter loss of $883.5 million. However, MGM's loss took into account the $1.12 billion write-down on its 50 percent share of the CityCenter in Las Vegas, so the news will no doubt improve in the near future.