Gamblers who can’t go to a casino are migrating to online.
Online gambling is booming, and we know why.
ABC News reports that the online casino of FOX Bet has doubled the rate at which it is adding new customers in the last week. Resorts Casino also has seen a “noticeable” increase in online gambling in recent days, according to President Mark Giannantonio. The Golden Nugget, which is New Jersey’s leader in internet gambling revenue, won over $177 million last year. It, too, is seeing a virus-related bump in its online numbers, with a 20% increase in new player signups this month, according to Thomas Winter, Golden Nugget’s senior vice president and general manager of online gambling.
“When the NBA shut down, we really saw a sharp increase since that date,” said Robin Chhabra, FOX Bet’s CEO. “We’re seeing a very strong shift to poker and online casino.”
David Schwartz, a gambling historian with the University of Nevada Las Vegas, said additional states could move to adopt internet gambling, depending on how streamlined the legislative process becomes.
“This is not like a snowstorm that will end in 48 hours,” he said. “This is so unprecedented and the timetable is simply unknown as to when employment and the economy rebounds,” said Hard Rock president Joe Lupo, who is not expecting online revenue to increase enough to begin to make up for lost in-person revenue.
And this trend doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere soon, says BM Magazine.
According to the Online Gambling Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Type (Sports Betting, Casinos, Poker, Bingo), by Device (Desktop, Mobile), by Region (North America, Europe, APAC, Latin America, MEA), and Segment Forecasts, 2020 – 2027″) on the matter, many experts are expecting an annual increase of anywhere between 3.1 and 10% year on year, with the global online gambling market projected to reach an eye-watering USD 127.3 billion by 2027.
In 2019, ABC notes that Atlantic City casinos won nearly $483 million online, an increase of nearly 62% over 2018 levels. Including in-person casino games and sports betting money, the casinos won $3.46 billion last year. Games such as lottery, bingo and poker, as well as traditional online slots games are flooding the market at an unprecedented rate in the US and Canada in recent years, but we are yet to see the full evolution of the industry.
