888 results raises online casino hopes

888 Holdings, the online casino and poker group, gave the internet gambling sector support yesterday by saying it enjoyed a "strong" October after a slow summer. The company said its revenues from casino games such as blackjack and roulette were almost flat from the second quarter of 2005 into the third but that the lack of growth merely reflected the holiday season. "Last year it was the same, the year before that it was the same," chief executive John Anderson said.

Compared with a year ago, the group"s casino revenues rose 18% to $40.5m (22.9m) in the third quarter. In its smaller poker business, where 888 operates the Pacific Poker site, quarterly revenues more than doubled to $29.5m compared with 2004. Total gaming revenues were 56% higher at $70m.

Although some investors say online poker is a fad, Mr Anderson was confident of long-term growth. "Online poker only came on the scene a couple of years ago so it has some way to go. Obviously it is not going to continue to grow at 250%, as it apparently did last year - if you compounded that rate over five years the whole world would be playing poker.