The threat of the 2020 coronavirus has forced people to stay at home. Many governments worldwide had to implement lockdowns to help contain the virus. Because of that, many populations around the world are quarantined in their homes or are in self-isolation.
The lockdown also affected the gambling industry and we can say that it has had both positive and negative effects. Sports betting, in particular, has been struggling since the start of the lockdowns, because many major sports events have been postponed or canceled. Because of this, many sports punters have turned to visiting a virtual sports betting site and online casinos.
When it comes to the market value of the online gambling sector, it is expected to grow from 58.9 billion US dollars to 66.7 billion US dollars with a growth rate of 13.2 percent this year alone. By 2023, the global gambling market is expected to be worth 92.9 billion US dollars with a CAGR of 11.64 percent. This is mainly thanks to the current situation and this is why this sector is one of the winning industries during the pandemic.
Online casinos did report a spike in their traffic since the lockdowns started in March. In Australia, a study by the AlphaBeta and credit firm Illion proves how online gambling activities in the country has increased at 67 percent since the lockdown.
Australia is known as one of the countries that gambles the most. Only sports betting and wagering are permitted in the country and online casino gaming is prohibited. The data from the Australian credit bureau and the AlphaBeta firm is based on a sample of 250,000 Australian consumers.
Meanwhile, Italy is also experiencing the same thing. Based on the data by the Italian newswire Agipro, the online gambling revenue in this country grew at 25 percent year on year. In March, the country’s overall online gambling revenue was at 181.4 million US dollars. In particular, Italians appear to be playing a lot of online poker.
New Zealand has seen a decrease in lotto sales and this was expected because of the temporary closures of physical stores. However, they noticed that around 125,000 people registered with MyLotto online. SkyCity, an online casino operator in the country, also reported that they have 15,000 new members.
The Health Promotion Agency in New Zealand also made a report about the gambling activities in the country. These people just really appear to be gambling the same way. Only 9 percent said that they have increased their gambling activities since the lockdown. Meanwhile, around 8 percent claimed that they gambled online for the first time and 12 percent said that they are gambling online more than usual since the lockdown. The most common reason for this, they found out, is that people are just not really able to go out to gamble.
More people in the United States also appear to be gambling online. Global Poker, a US online poker room reported an increase of 43 percent in the use of poker sites in the countries. They also reported that there is a 255 percent increase in first-time poker players.
Survation poll conducted a survey on gambling activities in the country and more than 1000 people responded. They found that gambling activities, in general, were reduced because of the lack of sports events to wager on, but there are many gamblers who said that they were gambling more since the start of the lockdown period.
A quarter of the respondents said that they typically bet at least once a week and they remain to do the same thing during the lockdown. 28 percent have said that they have increased their gambling activities and 11 percent said that they were gambling a lot more during this time. They also found that 41 percent of the respondents are new to online gambling.
Many of the punters who answered this survey also said that the lack of sports betting odds also made them switch to playing online casino games like blackjack, poker, and slot machines.
It is likely that laws concerning online gambling will be revisited by many countries, especially in the United States. Penn National Gaming CEO Jay Snowden said that the need for tax revenues by many states may speed up sports betting legalization in the country.
Snowden said during his interview with CNBC’s Power Lunch, “We think that this legalization process that is happening at the state level stands to accelerate, and we really think we’ll benefit from that because we operate in more states than any gaming company in the world.”
