Melon madness delivers a major mobile slot jackpot

The growing use of mobile devices to gamble saw a major slot jackpot win on PartyGaming’s Melon Madness game last week when a 50-something iPhone punter scored GBP 1.45 million – one of the highest mobile pay-outs to date.

With tablet and both Android and iOS smartphone sales soaring across the globe, vast new potential gambling audiences are opening up, particularly in Asia where populations are both early adopters and comfortable with digital technology.

In Q2-2013, research experts Gartner reported that smartphones accounted for almost 52 percent of the 435 million cellphones sold in the quarter worldwide – an over 46 percent increase on the comparative period in the previous year. 74 percent of that growth came from the Asia-Pacific region.

Android smart handhelds – especially from Samsung – continue to dominate the market, with a 79 percent share, far outperforming iOS-Apple smartphone take-up which held just over 14 percent of the smartphone market.

The iOS-Apple decline is particularly noticeable in China, where the platform has slipped to seventh position, trailing market leader Samsung by a double digit margin, and struggling against competition from Lenovo, Yulong, ZTE, Huawei and Xiaomi.