At the beginning of the year, many gambling experts made predictions about what the future may hold for the gambling industry. However, an unprecedented year full of difficulties and world events that really took hold in the spring of 2020.
This led to forced quarantines across the world which affected the income of casinos and sports bookmakers. When things seem so negative it is important to look for the glimmer of light in a dark time. We have already seen one way in which staying at home has led to an increase in demand in some industries. For example, online gambling has seen a huge surge in popularity. This has also led to some new developments in the industry as well. For example, live croupiers dealing and spinning the wheels live from a real-world casino streamed directly to your computer.
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The COVID-19 effect on Online Gambling
Whilst the pandemic brought the world to a standstill in March with many sports being cancelled, the online gambling industry saw a change in trends, which saw a rise in new online casino players each week. This was brought on by the closing of land-based casinos and many sports fans trying something new.
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UK Online Casinos Leading The Change
The UK has seen a massive shift with the crossover from offline to online giving a huge boost to popular UK gambling sites. Many people have been enjoying gambling on their mobile devices, but there has been a massive increase in users on laptops and desktops as a result of more people being stuck at home. We will probably see this trend continuing as we enter the new year and the rules on whether land-based casinos reopening continuously changing then people will steer on the side of caution and continue to gamble on their computers.
UKGC Reporting
The UKGC report has verified these assumptions about how people are gambling online. The reports have claimed that there has been a 25% increase in people playing online slots and a 38% increase in people playing poker. These numbers though only cover the early spring months.
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Online Migration hitting its peak
It is of course not only the online gambling industry that has seen a spike in demand as people are working more at home and are doing their daily activities online as well. Whether this is a sign of things to come that remains to be seen. This does show that people are more tech-savvy than we may think and more people are comfortable interacting with the internet more than ever before.
The future of online gambling in Europe
There is currently a massive boom occurring in the Online gaming industry in Europe as well. The growth is often paired with soft zones, which is where a lighter tax regime is in place. These places include the Isle of Man, Malta and Gibraltar. There has also been a growth in technology development including VR gambling and slots and casinos plus e-sports.
Conclusion
The increased popularity of online gambling and the restrictions on land-based casinos has seen their appeal being lost amongst players. Experts have theorized that those who fail to establish an online base will struggle going forward. Gambling like many other things is becoming an increasingly online enterprise.