The first firings in the Israeli online gambling industry have started, as IM Intermedia dismissed half of its 100 workers yesterday.

The firm supplies services for online marketing and data mining for online gaming companies in the United States, and its customers include Intercontinental Online.

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The company confirmed the report.

Yesterday's cutbacks are just the first of many expected in the industry after the U.S. Senate approved a bill last week banning the use of credit cards for online gambling.

American banks and credit-card companies will no longer be allowed to pass on funds to Internet gambling sites.

Initial estimates are that the first companies to feel the pinch will be small- and medium-sized firms that supply services to the gambling sites.

It appears those predictions are coming true.

Since the law was passed, share prices of Internet gaming companies, including a number of Israeli firms, have plummeted by dozens of percent. Empire Online has lost 25 percent, 888 has dropped 28 percent, PlayTech lost 35 percent, Party Gaming lost 61 percent, and Sportingbet plummetted 62 percent.

Billions of dollars in value evaporated overnight in the online gaming industry, and this is just the start as half of the revenues in the $6 billion sector come from American gamblers.