SEGA Enters Online Gambling Market

SEGA, one of the world's largest video game developers, joined the online gambling industry this week after the Alderney Gambling Control Commission, a Channel Island online gambling jurisdiction, granted the gaming firm a license to develop and promote its own online gambling games.

On the face of it seems as though SEGA, the gaming company perhaps most famous for its hugely successful adventure game Sonic the Hedgehog, has come over to the 'dark side', presumably to help bolster gaming revenues it has been steadily losing to rivals like PlayStation, XBox and Wii in recent years.

Founded in Hawaii in 1940, SEGA Corporation evolved into a major force in the development of coin-operated arcade games and consol games, and lead the way for many years with its state-of-the-art and graphically rich games. It eventually moved its headquarters to Japan where it has been ever since.

To remain a major player in the highly competitive gaming industry, executives at SEGA obviously recognized the potential to enter the lucrative online gambling market, hence the application and granting of an online gambling license from Alderney, which will allow it to produce online casino and poker games.