In the 1990s only a handful of online casinos and sports betting website were available. Since then, there has been a rapid growth spurt in the casino industry. This is all due to the release of the world wide web which has allowed the development of the broadband that has eventually led to wireless internet. Wireless internet has allowed the modern-day casino player to play from anywhere via their laptops or smartphone devices. The wireless internet network that supports these devices is 3G, 4G and now the most recent and fastest version, 5G.
Because of the fast-growing development of the internet, cellular communications improved so did the growth of the software developers and online casinos. Due to this fantastic development, online casinos and software developers have been able to constantly improve themselves through following their player’s needs. Thanks to the internet communications between the online casino companies and their players have never been better.
The online casino market is dominated by some of the industries top software developers such as Microgaming, Playtech, and Cryptologic. These iGaming companies have shaped and changed the gambling market through powerful and innovative casino games. Not only are they the leaders but they’re also multi award-winning companies with successful gaming platforms and popular casino games.
There seems to be no backing down for the online casinos and software developers and why would they? The gambling industry at the moment exceeds $60 billion and future predictions are showing that in 2024 it may even go up to as high as $94.4 billion.
Many companies in the gambling were worried that the market capitalization was going to decrease due to more and stricter regulations being put in place but that couldn’t be further from the truth. They decided to work closely with the regulators instead of fear them through implementing improved player safety and security.
This has made more people want to gamble as they’ve never felt safer than to this day. Sometimes you have to ride the waves and become a better surfer rather than fear the deep water and this is what the casino companies have done.
This rapid growth faze has also increased liberalization in the US, Europe, and Australia. As smartphones technology increases so do the number of players registering to play via their iOS or Android mobile phones and tablets.
Last year, in 2018, New Jersey had a petition go through the Supreme Court of the United States of American where they overturned the PASPA in which they now allow individual states to regulate online sports betting.
As New Jersey implemented the change many other US states are now trying to push for the same change to legalize online sports betting. Some of the most current and biggest online sports betting companies are 888, William Hill, Ladbrokes Coral Group, Paddy Power and Betfair.
Although the future looks positive for the gambling market it’s hard to predict exactly how it’s going to go based on bureaucratic complexities and regulatory systems. The easiest way to evaluate the state of the future gambling market is through assessing stable software companies such as Microgaming as they’ve been stable in their growth and profit since they were founded in 1994.
Microgaming has been providing 888casino with its market-leading software for a long time coming. They’re now also operating in over 20 licensed jurisdictions globally. Microgaming follows the strict gambling laws and does not operate in any unlicensed jurisdictions.
Players can enjoy Microgaming’s games in the UK, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, and many other countries. They’re currently working on opening up their operations in South America, Colombia which has recently been approved.
GAMBLING MARKET IN THE UNITED STATES
The secret with the United States is that it could become the biggest gambling market in the world but due to loads of controversy around the legality of online gambling. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act permits each state to determine for themselves if online casino, online poker, sports betting and lotteries are allowed and if passed, can only be signed by the respective governments of the state.
The confusion remains because even though many states have not signed it off to allow online gambling because the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act says nothing about the actual act of gambling and only mentions the issue of payment processors to online gambling sites.
In the 50 states in the US, there are only a few who are regulated and two states who don’t permit any form of gambling activity which is Utah and Hawaii. The biggest online casino market in the US is New Jersey since Nevada has limited their gambling activity to online poker only.
Pennsylvania has currently got the biggest potential for profit growth within the online gambling market as they have a large population of legal aged bettors. Sports betting online recently came into effect and has started to generate large substantial returns.
To this day, there are only four states in the US who are fully regulated in online poker which are Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
GAMBLING MARKET IN THE EUROPE
The European Union is determined by the individual EU laws and the laws within their own countries. As they’re required to always follow the basic framework of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
Most European countries allow some form of online gambling activity. For example, the United Kingdom allow all different kinds of gambling online while other countries such as Germany are limited in what they offer in terms of online gambling.
The majority of the European countries follow the monopolistic systems which permit limited access to the online gambling market. Private operators in certain cases may be permitted to exclusive access to their online gambling market.
Across Europe, a total of 12 million players are licensed with affiliated Europen companies acting under the EGBA (European Gaming and Betting Association).
The online gambling market generates around €20 billion and is estimated to generate in profit of around €25 billion in 2020. The biggest market to gamble within is sports betting that takes about 40% of the gambling activity online.
GAMBLING MARKET IN AUSTRALIA
Australia has in the last year had a 0.5% decline in its gambling revenue. However, saying that, the sports betting increased to a total of $1.062 billion AUD. Sports betting has been a favorite not only in Europe but in Australia too for centuries. This seems to be a trend worldwide as many people around the globe have a hobby and interest in sports. So to integrate the chance of possibly winning big bucks with your favorite sport has many people interested and keep coming back for more chances to win large.
The casinos that used to have a rapid growth in their revenue in Australia have decreased in their total casino expenditure. There may be many reasons for this one of the reasons is due to the strict regulations that have been put in place. However, in Europe, it seems to have had the opposite effect where more people are gambling and feel safer than ever.
Another reason for the decrease in the Australian gambling market is due to the growth of criminal activity in casinos across Australia. Many believe and there are allegations floating around pointing towards some criminals coming from Asia where they come to launder their money into the Australian casinos.
There also talks about certain casino investors being involved in criminal activities in Australia where action has been taken. This has led to the Australian high-rollers that bring most of the money into the casino have taken a step back as they want to play in a safe gambling environment away from any form of criminal activity
Does this mean Australia’s gambling market is at the beginning of the end of their casino gambling market? Or does it mean that they’ll be forced to adapt and push their marketing to improve and become better than ever to attract players to come and gamble again? Time will only tell but if we’re right about the Aussie, then they can ride any kind of wave and come out at the end even better.