How Will Igaming Impact Brick-and-Mortar Casinos

In Michigan, they advertise on every local TV commercial break for people to quit going to casinos and do all their gambling online. I also see that many other states have introduced online gambling over the past year. So my big concern is, will this significantly reduce the amount people will gamble at local casinos and reduce the Las Vegas casino trips and gambling? Will this make Vegas casinos continue reducing the payoffs and benefits of gambling like they've done over the past 10-15 years and now offer little to gamblers and concentrate on making money on visitors instead?

And at the bottom of the page is your link to the new poll on the polls

Ever since the pandemic hit hard last year, uncertainty has run rampant and we've received countless questions asking us to predict the future. Mostly, we shy away from doing so, because our crystal ball isn't any clearer than anyone else's and we figure that the answers will present themselves in due time.

But this is one that we can comment on, at least in a general sense, based on the definite acceleration of internet gambling ("igaming") -- to wit, internet casino games and mobile sports betting.

In the first place, as gaming analyst Ken Adams observes, "Prior to the legalization of sports betting, online gambling was almost non-existent and most observers saw little chance for that to change."

In other words, before May 2018 when the Supreme Court opened the sports betting floodgates, igaming was an evolutionary development that seemed far in the future, at least in the U.S. In Europe, for many reasons beyond the scope of this answer, that future arrived much earlier and anyone really interested in the igaming phenomenon would do well to study the issues that European countries are currently confronting to get a glimpse of the direction the whole thing might, or should, or shouldn't, take in this country.

In the meantime, Adams continues, "Sports betting acted as an entry portal for online gambling. States with mobile sports betting netted five or ten times more than states with only retail sports betting ["retail" is the industry word for betting in person at casino-based sports books]. Additionally, mobile sports betting demonstrated that remote gambling could be regulated and taxed. The lesson was clear: The shift from mobile sports betting to other remote gambling is proving to be an easy one."

That said, contrary to the contention in the question, only two states introduced igaming in the past year: Michigan is in its fourth month and West Virginia is just now going on a year. Pennsylvania is approaching two years in the web-based casino business. And the only other states with remote casino gambling are Delaware and New Jersey (in Nevada, only online poker is available).

Still, it's certainly true that igaming has been one of the major topics of conversation in the casino community since the shutdowns a year ago March. And why wouldn't it be? Revenue from online gaming nearly tripled during that period.

On the other other hand, queries like yours on igaming are few and very far between as submissions to Question of the Day. In fact, if memory serves, this is the first one we've ever answered.

We've said it before and we'll say it again: LVA's demographic skews older and tends to gravitate to brick-and-mortar casinos for the vacation and social aspects, comps, and familiarity. Igaming and mobile sports betting are games, in general, for younger generations, not only because Millennials and GenZers (the oldest of whom are going on 25) are much more conversant with doing things on screens, but also because we geezers are less so, thus less inclined to.

You're right to be concerned that a migration to online gambling could lead to reduced payoffs and comps in the brick-and-mortar casinos, especially in Las Vegas, which might reinvent itself as a non-gambling destination in favor of dining, entertainment, sports, shopping, nightclubs and dayclubs, and even, in the more-distant future, medical tourism (at least some of those 150,000 hotel rooms certainly lend themselves to becoming healthcare facilities of one sort or another).

Obviously, that's been happening for many years already; revenues from the casino are shrinking, while those from non-gambling amenities are expanding. And yes, igaming will, if the trends in Europe and the U.S. continue along their current trajectories, accelerate the eventual transformation of gambling away from brick and mortar and toward remote screen-based play. We geezers will become fewer and fewer, while the device generations will embrace the new technologies.

In our opinion, it's as inevitable as every other evolutionary development that's ever transformed this world.

And here's your link to the new poll on how you feel about that polls.

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Randall Ward Jun-23-2021

online gambling

yes I'm older but very familiar with devices, just not interested in using them for gambling except sports.  I  just want our OK governor to stop feuding with the tribes and get it here, I'll still go to Vegas for other things

Kevin Lewis Jun-23-2021

Recourse? Oversight?

Who regulates these websites? What recourse do you have if you're cheated (or they simply refuse to cash out your winnings)? Can you even find the controlling entity and where their headquarters are? Do you have the slightest assurance that the software is fair?

Online gambling is only for hardcore desperate addicts. I suggest, instead, Kevin's Phone Blackjack. Live dealers! Just give us your credit card number. Sir, you have sixteen. Would you like to hit? Oh, too bad. Would you like to bet again?

Albert Pearson Jun-23-2021

Online Gaming

My view as an established geezer is that online gaming will attract the hardcore gamblers that are addicted to the games. For myself I do play a little online, but only because of the plague. I much prefer Las Vegas. I'm addicted to comps and free play. If the casinos cut back on them, then why would I go when I can do everything else at home.

RichM Jun-23-2021

Kevin Lewis

The gaming and poker sites are licensed and regulated, just like B&M casinos, often (depending on the state) in partnership with a licensed B&M casino. US-licensed sports betting sites are more widespread and are licensed and regulated by state gaming commissions as well.

shadow520 Jun-23-2021

Not for me

I'm firmly in the middle (not a boomer, not a millenial), so I use a lot of technology. But I have no desire whatsoever to gamble online/mobile.  I did sign up for a couple sportsbook apps to take advantage of promos, but that was it (and did quite well with them).  Without the social aspect, physical touching of chips/cards/dice/etc, sights/sounds, etc, gambling has absolutely no appeal to me.  I don't play those virtual table games that are popping up everywhere either.  Totally boring.  For me, it's the real thing or nothing.

VegasVic Jun-23-2021

Maybe It's Just Me...

But I like to actually see and touch the cards and dice I'm wagering my money on.

Tim Risch Jun-23-2021

Online Poker in Vegas

I am 60+ boomer who has been coming to Vegas to for 40+ years. My wife likes slots and I play tournament poker. My wife’s slot play won’t be moving online. However, with the recent closure of many poker rooms, first Luxor, TI, and recently Mirage, Excalibur, and Mandalay Bay, there are no good moderately priced poker tournaments left on the strip. When in Vegas, I now play online (I can’t legally play online in my home state). I can play online while relaxing in my room, at the pool, or in the sportsbook in tournaments costing only a few cents or dollars.  As poker has fallen out of favor with the general populace, it seems as though the poker tournaments that are still left are really competitive and not as much fun as they used to be. Unless things change, my live poker play will be significantly reduced and shifted to online while in Vegas.

John Dixon Jun-23-2021

Not for me

I wish I could remember who said this in an article once but it stuck with me. "Gambling on line is like playing craps with dice with no numbers".

Roy Furukawa Jun-23-2021

Vegas will always be Vegas

My friends from NY said it best when I asked them why they didn't just go to AC to gamble and they said, Vegas is Vegas. It's just over the top on everything, gambling, food, pools, strip clubs, sports books, the whole experience is something you can't find anywhere else. Electronic gambling is just for fun or worse, an addicts dream.

AL Jun-23-2021

Vegas will always be

I don't have much fear about Vegas collapsing due to online gambling. For me and and millions of others, Vegas is an escape from daily life, an exciting destination out of state that has bright lights, deals, good food and activities that you can't get at home. The gambling is only tied for first with these things in terms of being an attraction, and could actually be only the 2nd-most-important aspect. Online gambling is a 2D experience that pales in comparison to the real 3D experience of being in Vegas, so it will never replace or wipe out Sin City. One big constituent of Vegas visitors is groups of 4 military guys (mostly under 30) from So. Cal. bases who drive up to Vegas on the weekend; they all have smartphones and laptops, but they want the experience of going to the Strip. The two things that are better via a computer are racehorse betting and NFL parlays, because you have so much flexibility and don't have to worry about your bets getting shut out due to long lines of people.

AL Jun-23-2021

To Kevin Lewis:  Relax!

There have been legal American online betting companies for horse racing for a long time. They're all 100% trustworthy. Once you sign up & make a deposit into your account, it's all automatic, controlled by a computer. Say you deposit $100. To make bets, you go to the screen for the track & the race, indicate your bets via mouse, execute your bets, & the computer deducts the cost of the bets from your balance. When the race is over, if you won, the computer will add the winnings to your balance within 1 minute of the result being ruled official. No human is involved in this, so there's no chance of cheating. We only need to talk with Customer Service if we have a technical or logistical problem or need instructions. There are 4 major companies, which will never merge, so they set the standard; they & any other betting companies have to be just as automatic and ethical or else they will go out of business. So all we need is for casino or sports-betting companies to emerge & do the same.

Question of the Day - 23 June 2021

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