Going To Vegas
Will Online Casinos Ever Kill Casino Resorts?

Will Online Casinos Ever Kill Casino Resorts?

Tue, Oct 24, 2017

Nevada was one of the handful of US states that have decided to regulate online gambling, in one form or another, after getting the chance to do so in 2011. Unlike New Jersey that went the whole nine yards, legalizing online casinos along with poker rules, Nevada currently only has regulation concerning poker, daily fantasy sports, and some forms of sports betting (only in real life, of course). The motivation behind this decision seems to have been the reliance of the state on its land-based gambling business that generates a lot of tax revenue. Some stakeholders, like Las Vegas Sands chairman Sheldon Adelson, are outspoken opponents of online gambling, perhaps feeling that it might threaten the profits of their investments in Sin City. But is this really the case?

What happened in Europe

Europe was the birthplace of online gambling and is the region with the most comprehensive online gambling regulation in the world. Here, players are free to choose from hundreds of online gambling venues like wildjackcasino.com, the only requirement they have to conform with is to have the legal age to gamble (18 in most countries). Casinos like the Wild Jack have been around for more than two decades - and they don't seem to have a negative effect on the land-based gambling businesses in Europe. To be fair, the Old World doesn't have many major casino resorts - even Estoril, the biggest casino in Europe, is no match for what you find in Vegas. Still, despite the wide availability of online gambling options, the land-based gambling business in Europe still thrives.

What happened in New Jersey

New Jersey has a major land-based gambling industry yet it's still the only state in the US where online casinos are legal. All of them are operated by land-based casino businesses, though - a practice considered by other states that are working on similar legal initiatives as we speak. Even though online casinos have been available in New Jersey for years, its land-based gambling business doesn't show any signs of being affected. And, studies have shown that the problem gambling phenomenon also hasn't grown within the state.

A different demographic

A study conducted on the gambling habits of New Jersey residents shows that the demographics attracted by the two types of casino games hardly overlap. Since the legalization of online gambling, more locals aged between 35 and 40 have chosen it as a convenient and permanently available form of playing casino games. Yet neither the convenience nor the day-long availability of online gambling will divert fans of traditional gambling from actually going to a casino and do their thing there.