Online Gambling Trends And Forecasts – A Comprehensive New Report by PwC
Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC), one of the giants of the accounting firms worldwide, has published a report on “Global casino and online gaming market to 2014″ recently. This lengthy but must-read report discusses the land and online casino industry, including players, trends and revenue growth, just to name a few. We have a step ahead summarizes by digesting selected sections of the report and it away for you. It is noteworthy to mention that we have chosen relevant contents of this website and these together with some of our inputs together (readers who want to get an insight into the report details can visit
Casino Revenue figures – Current and estimates
PwC report came in two parts. The first part contains discussions on land-based casinos, while the second hand at online casinos. While this website focuses on online casinos can be a discussion about land-based casinos at this point not be ignored its major operations and a strong influence on its online counterpart face. Probably due to lack of reliable and credible sources, sales figures have been excluded from online gambling from the PwC report. However, the company came from with turnover numbers of regulated online gambling. PwC reports that for 2009 alone revenues from gambling world was derived a whopping 100.5 billion U.S. dollars. The company estimates that this further reach 156.8 billion U.S. dollars, or a hefty 56 percentage points increase by the end of 2014.
Asia-Pacific Region – win Headway
Everyone knows that Asia is being touted as the next world champion, so it’s not surprising when PwC reported that the Asia-Pacific region from the industry, especially Macau has already surpassed Nevada casino revenue in 2008. Have Asia-Pacific countries such as Australia and South Korea have become major players as they accounted for 92% of casino revenue in the region in 2008. Singapore is not to be left behind, as it occupies the third position among the regions of sales for the same year.
Recession and U.S. casinos
In the U.S., the casino owners will experience a less favorable output. The recent economic crisis has had a negative impact on the casino owners in Nevada and Atlantic City. Casino owners not spared by the crisis. As expected, sales took a nosedive. As a precaution, New Jersey government reportedly is preparing for an Online Gambling Bill that would help outside the casinos of Atlantic City, to obtain operating licenses, submit.
Shifts and Directions
PwC also reported main directions that are taken from online casinos within a four-year period. Here is a brief discussion of these directions, including our views.
1 Cross-Border Gambling
The practice of keeping casino operations within the areas or states are supported by their respective governments, however, this facility can gain no strong foot hold in the coming years. Casino owners, especially those who would within small countries or regions opportunities find to expand their customer reach. The Powerball Lottery multistate in the U.S. and selected provinces in Canada to create a poker network upgraded. Apparently Crossing Borders would inevitably try as entrepreneurs, their customers is to play with so many players to the spot.
2 Government and Taxes
Like any other business or going concern, casinos are also taxed by the government. Understandably government would want higher revenues from taxes but it may be useful to alleviate its collection of taxes (including regulations), if it wants the industry to thrive. Too much imposition of taxes and stricter regulations can kill the industry. Online gambling in France, for example, has made the French government responsible for their poor performance due to regulations and taxes. Gaming companies in the UK also experienced the same heavy collection of taxes. For this reason, a leading gambling business in the UK has decided to pull-out and moving their headquarters offshore.
3 Societal views and values
People have different perspectives on gambling. Poker, for example, is considered a strategic game and brings analytical skills among its players. On the other hand, table games in casinos are often considered as a game of chance and is unlikely to win wide acceptance, compared with poker games. In the USA, horse racing has evolved into a legal activity in different states. Sports betting has also a large industry in the United States.
A few years ago, the UIGEA bill was passed to control illegal online gambling, although there are companies pushing for its repeal. We can go to the discussion of a variety of other forms of gambling and different views of the public on this. The bottom line is any form of gambling draws mixed reactions from various sectors of society. The saying “Different strokes for different folks” applies strongly.
4 The Social Network Bandwagon
Many might be wondering whether a deal could possibly be forged between the popular social network Facebook and Harrahs. Deal or no Deal, social networks are required to take on a main role in promoting online casinos. It is interesting to note that apart from Harrahs have other online casino companies expressed a growing interest in joining the social networking train. Apparently, more and more casino entrepreneurs recognize the value of social utilities and their great contribution to the increase in customer base and revenue. Proof of this is the growing number of Zynga poker poker fans who play for free via Facebook.
Final Note
Overall, it appears that the growth of online casinos (including land-based) will strongly influence by government laws and regulations on casinos and strategies to achieve sales growth in the coming years. Of course, we can not discount the role of the public in shaping the future of the casino world. Whether she is ready to gambling as a legitimate source of entertainment for mature and responsible adults is still hug, remains to be seen. Finally, forging relationships with social networks have become a trend among casino owners, as they recognize their valuable contribution to the market presence and revenue growth.
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