Earlier, people used to go to the land based casinos only for playing casino games and gambling. About two decades back, Internet started penetrating into the homes across various countries and global Internet population started increasing in almost all countries of the world. With the advent of the Internet, many online casinos started their operations and gamblers started preferring playing the games right from the comfort of their Personal computer from their home. There were no hassles of going out and people started enjoying playing in the technical platform to a great extent. Many land based casinos also started their web version so that their existing players can continue playing without visiting their land based casinos.
But there is some risk involved with the online casinos as many fraud companies have also come into the market with the intention of making fast money by duping the winning money of the players. In such case, you may not get the winning amount which you have earned by investing some money. Hence it is always advised to go for a reliable and reputed casino like 1xBet casino so that you never lose your money at the end of the process. The advantages of being associated with reputed online casinos are that not only you get some valuable tips on winning, but also get your money credited to your account in proper time.
Though there has been a boom in the online casino industry for long, the land casinos have also not lost their attraction as many people especially the tourists preferred visiting the land based casinos when they are on a long vacation trip.
The arrival of Covid 19 had a bad effect on the casino and gambling industry as a whole. To control the pandemic, many countries imposed lockdown and that lead to the closure of many land based casinos across different cities in various countries. This leads to the drop in revenue of commercial gaming by 31% in the US in 2020, than the previous year. Though the revenue from commercial gaming touched $30 billion in the US in 2020, it was the first contraction shown in the market after 2014. The gaming revenue of US $30 billion is considered to be the lowest since the year 2003. As a result, people associated with gaming industry became very much worried about how to sustain their business if the current Covid situation continues to exist. The last quarter showed some increase of 1.7% than the previous quarter, but it is still lower by 17% over year-on-year basis than the last year.
Due to the lockdown imposed by different Governments, it was found that the commercial land based casinos lost almost 30% of their standard operating days in the year 2020. In addition to these, some land based casinos had to remain closed because of the hurricanes which landed along the Gulf Coast in 2020.
In addition to the gaming revenue, many other types of earnings are associated with the land based casinos. These include live entertainment, meetings, conventions and tourism and many more. All these make up more than half of the casino resort revenues in the land based casinos which are located in mostly tourist destinations. Due to the lockdown imposed in the year 2020, all these revenue based activities in the land based casinos came to a standstill.
The land based casino properties started returning to normal business towards the end of the year 2020. There are 998 casinos in the US and out of them, 991 opened during their gates during the winter of 2020. A research has shown that about one out of three American adults are planning to make a visit to any casino in the year 2021. About 80% of the visitors to the casinos have agreed that they are happy with the safety measures taken by the industry for safe opening with all Covid related precautions taken.
As the land based casinos went for a closure, there was no ban on the online casinos as they can be accessed and played from the comfort of home or office. Hence it was observed that the online casinos saw a massive increase in revenue during the time of Covid pandemic. Due to the lockdown, a large section of the population stayed at home. Some people were doing their office work from home, while a large section of the population lost their jobs and stayed back at home. They had nothing to do and they were looking for something in order to spend some time. Those who are interested in gambling started playing in the online casinos right from their home PC or Smartphone. Those who have no experience in gambling started learning the simple games and even the harder ones by trying their luck in the free games which are provided by many online casinos through their website. Though some countries have put some restrictions on some online casinos, but in general, the more popular games are available in most of the online casinos.
Another major reason for the growth of online casinos was the lack of sports activities during this period of Covid 19. Many people spent their leisure time at home and they were not able to watch any sports related activities while staying at home. In the absence of any entertainment related activities, people preferred playing games and do gambling through online casinos. It was a good source of entertainment for them who sat at home and had nothing to do. Since there were no sports related activities, people who gamble on sports find nothing to bet on during this time.
In the meantime, the online casinos came up with a bunch of virtual offers which was accepted by many who were sitting at home and doing nothing. People who were interested in sports betting only also started trying their luck in online roulette or baccarat or poker. As many people lost their jobs during the pandemic, it was also considered as a earning opportunity by many players.