With most casinos and other places of entertainment shut down across the United States, players are looking for other gambling sources. Research conducted by an affiliate bonus group found that there has been a 100% rise in search engine activity for the words ‘online casino’ in North America from February to the end of March, 2020.
As more and more land-based venues closed their doors to the general public in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, so too did more and more US players start searching for ‘online casino’ online.
According to the affiliate, this trend reached its tipping point on March 12th, when more players used their search engines to look for the worlds ‘online casino’ than they did ‘sports betting’. In the weeks that followed, the numbers literally doubled.
Some believe that this is a wake-up call for the US gambling industry. Many parties are calling for state governments to allow online casino games to become legal in order to offset the massive losses expected from the coronavirus.
According to the MD of the affiliate group, Bonusfinder.com, Fintan Costello, the five states that have opened igaming are seeing month-on-month revenue rises, with New Jersey leading the way. The Garden State generated $52 million in igaming Gross Gaming Revenue in February alone this year (and just over $480 million altogether in total last year).
“This is a wake-up call for the 12 states that have already established an online sports betting regime,” said Costello. “They should take note of the enormous interest in online casino from players and use this momentum to legislate igaming before we start seeing players turning to unlicensed, offshore sites and the black market.”
“The demand will only continue to increase as this unprecedented situation continues, therefore now is the time to focus on providing best-in-class, regulated real-money online casino games that players can enjoy responsibly and that can also help state governments make up revenue shortfalls.”
