Gambling: A cure for dot-com woes?

Internet gambling is one trade that is booming despite the current atmosphere of dot-com gloom, according to Web traffic monitoring company Jupiter MMXI Thursday.

While many dot-coms are forced to cut back in order to survive market coldness toward technology and Internet stocks, figures from Jupiter show that in recent months gambling Web sites have moved up in the popularity stakes. Online betting sites currently rank as some of the most visited UK entertainment sites.

This may be one area of the Internet that is actually likely to see ongoing growth, suggests Mari Kim Coleman, managing director of Jupiter MMXI in the UK.

"The popularity of the national lottery is now being felt on the Internet," said Coleman in a statement. "New game and gambling sites are appearing regularly in our data, as the Internet becomes not only a work tool but also a source of fun and entertainment."

One site, Grab.com, moved from the 25th most popular UK entertainment Web site to the third most popular, behind Virgin.net and WindowsMedia, during the month of December.

Betting sites have looked for increasingly quirky ways to attract punters. One company, Blue Square, organized live online snail racing to get visitors to place bets.