It seems like a no-brainer that gambling and betting in the mobile will be a significant business. However, murky business practices both in the mobile entertainment world and the Internet gambling world creates what we see today in the financial markets – lack of confidence.

If we can get the consumers confidence up then we are on to a gold mine. The “we” here meaning gambling operators, mobile developers and service providers that take part in offering mobile gambling to the masses. It is common knowledge in the industry that mobile games key reason to exist is to counter “micro-boredom”. I.e. when we have a few minutes down time we can play a few rounds of our favourite game on our mobile phone. I am sure my neighbour across the street is not alone as he stands there smoking in the garage (no smoking inside!) playing games on his phone at the same time.

So, let’s first tackle the consumer confidence. How do we raise that? Transparency for starters. Be clear that you are not sucking the user into endless loops of subscriptions, nor will you spam or sell their details and finally their credit card data is safe. In fact the back end to a mobile gambling system has to follow the same strict demands as any internet gambling site that is properly regulated. In Europe Malta has a strong lead here, with the Maltese Finance Authority overseeing companies and their licenses for operating gambling services.

If my neighbour mentioned above and all the rest of us could spice up that moment of boredom and have some money on the table at the same time, I think we look at a big business opportunity. Now I hear all the nay-sayers “It will never work. People won’t trust their phone with money transactions etc.”. I say, you are right. We need to adapt the stakes here to have 10-50 cent bets rather than 10-50 EUR/USD bets. On top of that we have to, as always, offer a great experience. That is what we really are selling here.

Now all we need is to have this financial crisis to ease its grip on us all, some more improved regulation and trust and lust from gambling operators to launch more mobile gambling services. Not a small order I know, but the case is there behind all those real or imagined hurdles.

The soundtrack to this post is of course The Monkees with “I’m a believer”.