American Investment Bank Goldman Sachs has predicted that online gambling will eventually be legalized in the United States. In a message sent to investors last week, the bank reasons that a legal online poker and casino market would be worth up to $12 billion, a sum too big a benefit for US lawmakers to ignore.

"Were the market to be legalized, we believe that the size of the revenue opportunity could increase materially... Based on an assumption of 30% penetration of offline poker players and $300 gross gaming revenue (GGR) per player, we estimate that a legal poker market could be worth $3bn."

The American poker market was found to be worth $1.5 billion in 2008. Despite the generous predictions, the bank still feels that online gambling regulation at a federal level will continue to take time, and that efforts could move faster at a state level. With the recession taking up much of the congress time, the laws against online gambling have been delayed until at least September to be looked at in parliament.

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