The threat of the 2019 coronavirus or COVID 19 has forced many people around the world to stay in their homes to remain safe. It’s been a few weeks since countries in Europe and Asia have started implementing lockdowns. The same thing is happening in many parts of the United States.
People are trying to find ways to keep a positive mindset despite the on-going health crisis and many are turning to the internet for this. Internet usage is now higher than the norm and online activities are more prominent than ever.
Online casino gaming appears to be in an all-time high at the moment. Online casinos have always been a great avenue for people to gamble. It has convenient casino payment methods in India, the US, the UK, and wherever casino gaming is prominent and it’s the cheaper alternative for gambling away in cities like Las Vegas and the Atlantic City.
The online gambling sector has experienced a spike of 67 percent in just the past week for Australia. This country is known to be at the top when it comes to gambling-related activities. However, even the US and the UK are also reporting an increase in online gambling activities in the past few weeks. It’s understandable that more people are now playing online casino games because the sports betting industry is a bit dull at the moment.
The 67 percent increase in Australian gambling activities came from a study done by the Australian Credit Bureau and AlphaBeta, an analytics firm. This is based on a sample of transactions from 250,000 Australians consumers.
In New Jersey, The Golden Nugget reported that it has experienced a 20 percent increase in new player sign-ups in the month of March. They are already anticipating that they would make more than what they made last year for the next few months.
Land casinos have been instructed to temporarily close their doors in many cities and it’s the first time in a long time since Sin City had quiet nights. Other states like New Jersey and Maryland also ordered land casinos to close their doors until lockdowns are lifted.
Frequent casino goers are surely now playing their favorite casino games online and since more people are at home, online casinos are gaining more customers or players.
It’s also a factor that online casinos are offering something fun and exciting. It’s a struggle to be in self-isolation and people are just really craving action and excitement. They can always do other things on the internet like watch movies and TV series on streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu, but online gaming is still something that keeps their brains active.
It is the online poker activities, however, that appears to have significantly increased. Since the lockdown implementation in parts of the US, there has been a massive increase of 43 percent in the number of daily poker activities.
Online casino sites that offer online poker games reported that they have new poker players that have registered since the quarantine period, but around 50 to 75 percent of these new poker players have been betting on sports before. This could mean that sports bettors have chosen this as their new gambling activity while the sports industry takes a hopefully short pause.
Sports bettors still have a few options left, however, so statistics don’t really show that sports bettors are dramatically shifting to online casino gaming. There still are sports in parts of North America, Russia, and Japan that are still pushing through and people are betting on them still.
Sportsbooks are also getting creative by offering odds on non-sports-related events like the weather, the outcome of movies or TV shows, and even politics. For now, these would satisfy the betting needs of frequent punters and it helps bookmakers stay in business.
This trend may continue in the next few weeks and even for up to two quarters. This may differ in different places too. There are states and countries that are likely to extend the quarantine period and an extension could mean that people will have to continue staying at home. These people might continue playing more online casino games.
It remains unknown whether online gambling activities will suddenly flunk after the quarantine period. It may seem likely but it’s hard to say if online gambling activities will severely decrease. The quarantine period, after all, lured in new players and these new players may continue gaming even after this health crisis.
