Online gambling group 888 has confirmed a full recovery since being closing its US operations in 2006 after reporting a 36% rise net gaming revenue in the past year.

The US Congress banned online betting in October 2006, forcing gambling firms including 888 and PartyGaming to shut down their US-facing operations.

888 restructured its business including the launch of a sports betting service in partnership with Rank and a bingo operation. A takeover by Ladbrokes was considered but talks collapsed last April.

Net gaming grew 36% to $213 million in 2007, after stripping out contribution from US customers in the comparative period.

Casino revenue grew by 33% to $118 million and poker revenue up 18% to $81 million.

888, whose brands include Pacific Poker and Casino-on-Net, said it had seen a 30% increase year-on-year in real money registered accounts, which stood at 4.7 million at the end of 2007.

In the fourth quarter, the number of active customers in casino and poker was just under 210,000, an increase of 11% on the previous year.

Current trading conditions are 'strong', said the company. During the first 37 days of 2008, it attracted 17% more first-time casino and poker players each day than in the fourth quarter.

James Hollins, an analyst at stockbroker Daniel Stewart, raised his 12-month target price for shares in 888 to 155p from 139p. The share price increased 2.5% on Tuesday morning to 134.75p.

Numis analyst Richard Carter believes 888 will continue to make acquisitions and strategic partnerships. '888.com has announced a very strong Q4 revenue performance, outperfoming our $56 million expectation by 12.4%,' he said. 'With the strong start made to Q1 we think the group's current valuation is unjustified given the level of cash generation and growth.'