Across the globe online gambling and gaming has become one of the most popular internet activities of any type, in many cases replacing land-based casino games.
Down under in Australia, the same trend seems to have occurred, as a Roy Morgan Research report shows that online gambling is on the rise while land-based casino games are on the general decline.
If your Crown Limited’s James Packer or Echo Entertainment top brass, no wonder you are looking to further to expand online activities.
In 2010, online gambling spending research rocketed $928 million. One year later, spending jumped significantly to $1.1 billion. These statistics refer to spending at government regulated sportsbetting websites such TabCorp. The report does not take other, unregulated online gambling sites into consideration. However, Australians do play on sites such as PartyPoker, World Poker Tour and PokerStars, so they are likely spending billions more on online gambling than this report states.
On the other side of the equation, land-based gambling in Australia has seen a huge decline. From 2010 to 2011, Australians spent $1.6 billion less on traditional gambling activities with a $1 billion decline in pokies spending. This is likely due to the fact that many players have taken their gambling online. Since the online gambling world offers much more convenience to players, it is likely that it has replaced land-based gambling.
Crown Melbourne and its sister casinos, along with Sydney based competitor, The Star (owned by Echo Entertainment), are looking to bring back punters as well as casual gamblers with entertainment promotions including performing artist shows, comedians, showgirls and so the list goes on.
The debate over poker machine reform is also most likely to have had an effect on the land-based gambling market in Australia. Poker machines and other forms of land-based casino games seem to have been cast in a shaded light recently, and it appears as though the debate over pokie reform has discouraged many players from taking part in these games. Victoria’s new strict gambling rules have also resulted in a drop in pokies spending. Since passing the ATM ban for pokies venues, gambling spending has dropped by $62 million. The state has recently banned the use of headphones while playing poker machines, so it is expected that pokies spending will decline even more.
