888, the online gaming group, said yesterday that net gaming revenue rose 55 per cent in the fourth quarter, despite being the first full year since the company was forced out of the US market.

The gaming group, which has set itself a target of tripling profits and doubling revenues by the end of 2010, said that net gaming revenue in the last three months of 2007 was $63 million (£32.4 million), with its casino games bringing in $35 million and $21 million coming from its poker sites.

The group said that 2008 trading had “started strongly”, as it reported a jump in revenue from non-US internet gamblers.

888 was forced to withdraw from the US in 2006 after Congress passed a law outlawing online gambling.

The measure signed into law by President Bush, which prohibits US banks and credit card companies from processing payments to online gambling businesses outside the country, took the industry in Britain by surprise.

"We have continued last year's positive momentum into the first quarter with the launch of our own new bingo brand 888Ladies, which is already showing hundreds of new customers recruited daily since launch in early February," Gigi Levy, the chief executive of the group, said.

Shares in 888 were up 1.75p to 133.25p at 9am.

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