Casino Gambling ForecastFUTURE TRENDSDigital television promises interactivityThe following figure shows digital television retail sales at current prices, 2001-05.FIGURE 41: Total wholesale sales of U.S. television manufacturers and DTV screens, at current prices, 2001-05Year Sales at current pricesmillions of dollars Index % change2001 2,648,100 -2002 4,280,162 61.62003 6,521,246 52.42004 10,420,394 59.82005 (est.) 17,388,657 66.9SOURCE: tel/CEASIf digital television is not yet a significant boon for the games industry, it will be soon enough. Digital television is a new broadcast technology that is expected to transform the television viewing experience. By packaging information into digital bits, broadcasters will be able to deliver more products into homes than was previously possible with analog broadcast technology. Wholesale sales reached $17 billion in 2005 and a household penetration rate of 15%, according to the CEA. The higher resolution of digital TVs will mean better picture and sound quality, but what interests the gaming industry is that the new space on the digital spectrum will allow for more interactive technologies. According to Congress, broadcasters will transition from analog to all-digital broadcasts beginning February 19, 2009. At that point, homes will become interactive audiovisual centers offering shopping, online banking, video gaming, video streaming, demand and gambling. In addition to CE mobile products and broadband technology, digital TV is another frontier for the home gaming industry. One such model is the one designed by the cable network Spike TV. In 2006, the network announced the creation of Spike Casino, a program allowing viewers to play games like roulette, craps and slots in real time and interact with viewers in live chat rooms. direct. Young Hispanics are wireless and already gaming online. Growth in the Hispanic population jumped nearly 58% between 1990 and 2000, more than four times the growth rate of the U.S. population. In 2006, the 44 million Hispanics represented 14.7% of the total population of 299 million in 2006. More importantly, the community is expected to continue to grow at a strong and steady rate. By 2050, it is estimated that approximately 30% of the total U.S. population will be Hispanic. Hispanics are the ethnic group in the United States most likely to gamble online and at home, and most likely to visit brick-and-mortar casinos very frequently (six or more times per year) (see Consumer section). According to the 2005 report Trends and Impact of Broadband in the Latino Community, published by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Southern California, 14 million U.