Online casino expansion is a boon to the land-based sector 29 March 2024

At a glance, it may seem that the rise of online casinos may be the end of land-based casinos. But the reality is a bit different from what you may expect. Thanks to a study by the Sports Gaming Alliance, the iGaming industry has gained some valuable insights about the impact of online casinos.

In this article, you will learn about the insights that the study revealed.

Background of the study

While the study, under the Sports Gaming Alliance, brought together industry giants such as Fanatics Sportsbook, DraftKings, FanDuel and BetMGM, it was run by another firm. The firm that undertook the research is the Analysis Group.

The goal of the study was to look at the states where iGaming is already legal. Figuring out the impact of iGaming in legal states could set a good indicator of the impact of introduction in other states.

The study was 167 pages of data analysing six states that have legalised iGaming. The title of the study is The Potential Economic Impact of Legalising iGaming on Casino Revenues in Five States.

The five states included Virginia, Louisiana, Illinois, New York and Maryland. Studying these five states would give a good idea of the potential economic impact of rolling out online casinos along with land-based casinos.

Insights

In the land-based casinos, the study revealed a 2% growth in annual revenue after the legalisation of online casinos. In some cases, it had the potential to reach up to 4.4%.

The study also received insight from customers. From studying 2389 people, it was able to discover that the majority of customers were still stuck with land-based casinos and had not reduced their visits after the legalisation of online casinos.

Conclusion

The study provides some valuable insights of the role of online casinos toward increasing revenue for land-based casinos. It shows that online casinos and land based casinos are not necessarily in competition but may be complementary satisfying different casino customers. 

The legalisation of online casinos in other states could add value to the revenue of land-based casinos. 

While the study provided some valuable insights, it missed out on covering responsible gambling. It is important to consider the negative impact of the legalisation of iGaming on vulnerable players.

In some states such as New Jersey, the rate of at-risk players is 6%. The statistic is concerning because this is twice the national average.

The Council for Fairer Gaming suggests that to tackle the negative impact of iGaming, the revenue could be drawn from other economic sectors.

Therefore, it's important that as online casinos are legalised, there should be equal emphasis on creating responsible gambling assistance for problem gamblers.