Online gambling continued its rise in 2006 despite some tough decisions by the US government to restrict the practice in America.

Major sporting events such as the World Cup pushed traffic on gambling sites even higher, with research group Nielsen//NetRatings claiming that more than one million UK punters went online on the first Saturday of the competition to read match reports and place bets. 

This success actually caused problems for online betting operations such as BetUK, Sporting Odds, Bet365 and Betfair, all of which suffered delays with their sites. 

However, the positive start did not last too long and in July the US fired the first shots in a looming war with online gambling companies by arresting the chief executive of Betonsports. 

David Carruthers was arrested at Dallas Fort Worth airport while transferring to a connecting flight to Betonsports' headquarters in Costa Rica. He was charged with conspiracy to offer bets to US citizens. 

The court also filed charges against company founder Gary Kaplan, media director Peter Wilson and nine other employees.

Betonsports finally succumbed to pressure from the US authorities in August and stopped accepting bets on its site.

That decision came just a few weeks before a new US law was introduced to outlaw online gambling.

Public companies lost more than £4bn of their market value and millions of customers as they were forced to shut their US operations.