As land-based casinos close, online casinos are booming!

With the coronavirus pandemic taking hold of large parts of the globe, it is a worrying time for many people and also for businesses. In an unprecedented step, many casinos in popular tourist hot spots around the globe including Macau and Las Vegas are closing their doors to customers as the effects of the virus and the attempts to contain it, begin to take effect.

For land-based casinos, it takes something incredibly rare to get them to close their doors and the main reason for that of course, is because the casinos will lose a great deal of revenue for every day that their doors remain closed to the public.

Of course, casinos are not the only business that are in this situation, a number of other business types face equally difficult times ahead but like some other operations, the key to their survival may already be in place, in the form of the Internet and for casinos specifically, the online gaming industry.

Moving online during the pandemic

It is not just casinos that are looking at how their online operations could offer them at least something of a financial lifeline through the crisis. Across all areas of business, entertainment, education and such, people and organisations are looking at different ways in which they can utilise different aspects of the internet to allow them to function in at least some capacity.

In many respects, online casinos have a big advantage here. Many of the top casinos have had their own online establishments for many years and they are well-established with a wide selection of games available for people to play. It is not like many, if any, of the top casinos will have to build up a site from scratch over the coming weeks and months. That online infrastructure is already in place for the majority of casinos.

Furthermore, there is already an extensive online casino gaming society in place, with millions of customers playing online, in fact, it is more than likely that even given the high number of customers a bricks and mortar casino may welcome every year, even in placed like Las Vegas or Macau, the number of customers that visit their online casino will likely outnumber them.

Spending

While the online casino gaming industry is very much in rude health and is largely unaffected by the current global pandemic in terms of players can still access the sites online even when they are at home in isolation, the situation is not all positive news for casinos.

There is no doubt that the average online player would not spend as much in a typical casino session as a player visiting a casino. Not only that, from their online casino, an establishment won't make any money from sundry items it can offer customers in their casino, such as drinks or food or entertainment.

Furthermore, given that the effects of this pandemic are being felt globally, it is likely that people that are spending money online to enjoy a few casino games are likely to reign in their spending, especially if their finances take a hit because of it, or if there is likely to be a sustained period of uncertainty for them regarding their jobs and similar.

However, the flip side of this is that there are a large percentage of people who are able to work from home and who are generally in good health. These people will want ways and means to enjoy themselves during their enforced isolation and of course, casino games and the like are a good way for people to enjoy themselves safely indoors.

Period of Uncertainty

What does seem very clear is that the casino industry, like all other businesses, are going to be operating in a period of uncertainty for some time, and in truth, nobody knows how long that period will last. Some operators are suggesting that it could be 18 months before some form of biological therapy is available to suppress the worst aspects of the disease. That is an extraordinarily long time for any business to be able to deal with in terms of being certain about their future.

However, it should also be noted that this is not the first time that humanity has faced such a crisis. Just after the end of the First World War, an influenza pandemic swept the globe and killed millions, chiefly because peoples understanding of hygiene, transmission and treatments to deal with the pandemic were not widely available. In recent times, we have also seen smaller outbreaks of the likes of Ebola, Zika, MERS and SARS.

Throughout all of these periods of worry and concern, businesses have managed to survive. The difference with this virus is that the rate of infection is much greater and as such, the time period at which it could be a factor is likely to be considerably longer.

Adaptability

While many of the top casinos generate huge profits every year, it should also be noted that they employ many thousands of people who benefit from that and it is these workers that are likely to be most impacted by any loss of revenue from the casino. Many governments are now putting financial safety nets in place to help these workers but having that worry over your employment, as well as your health, is a reality for many.

In truth, the ways for casinos to survive the coronavirus outbreak is to be adaptable. They may need to rely on their online sites for a stream of revenue for the time being and this may result in a scaling down of the workforce, however while the hit over the short term will be keenly felt, it should still be one that the industry can and will recover from.

Furthermore, with millions or even potentially billions of people set to be confined to their home for an as yet unknown period of time, online casino gaming may well offer people a way to focus on something enjoyable and positive during what is an otherwise hugely stressful time, providing of course they adhere to being responsible gamblers.

They may have been seen as being something out of fashion nowadays, but I do foresee the popularity of lower stakes slot games, even those you can play for a small amount (0.01) as being very popular over the coming months as people entertain themselves during the lock-down periods, but try to spend sensibly.

And that is something that players and the online casino industry should be thankful for.