A recent study by the Data Bridge market research company has found that the online casino industry is expected to witness market growth of 13.7% between 2021 and 2028. Online gambling has increased in popularity over the past few years, and experts believe it won’t slow down anytime soon.
While traditionally, gamblers have preferred playing in brick-and-mortar casinos, the balance is starting to tip in the other direction, with many gamblers preferring to play online than in a casino. Such a shift in attitude can’t be boiled down to one factor; rather, many factors have made the online casino world more appealing than the live one.
The main advantage that online casinos have over the brick-and-mortar casinos is their flexibility. You can play at many of these casino sites from your mobile, meaning you can play whenever and wherever you want. It’s much more convenient to whip out your phone and immediately start playing than it is to drive to your local casino, so many people are choosing it as their primary play method.
Another reason online casinos are seeing such success is because of their more generous promotions and loyalty schemes. Almost all online casinos in Canada offer a welcome bonus to new players, something that is a rarity in the live realm, and their ongoing promotions are much more appealing and easier to claim than those at a brick-and-mortar casino. Some online casinos even offer no-deposit bonuses, where you can win real money without having to make a deposit to their site!
While flexibility and rewards are important, the biggest thing that kept players from joining online casinos for the longest time was security. People didn’t feel like their money was safe at an online casino or that the game was rigged in the casino’s favour. At a live casino, you can see the dealer spin the roulette ball or deal a card, so you know that even if you lost, the game was legitimate. It’s taken a long time for online casinos to shake the stigma of impropriety, but now that they have done, they’re reaping the rewards from it.
The strict licensing system in many countries is giving these online casinos legitimacy in the eyes of the gaming public, leading to more players making deposits and playing games. Gambling commissions and licensing authorities have been created to keep these online casinos in check, ensuring they’re offering fair games, keeping their players’ funds safe, and honouring their promotions.
This is where Canada comes into the picture. Ontario has become the first Canadian province to offer gambling licenses to offshore companies, as long as they comply with the regulations set out by the AGOC (Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario). Online casinos need a license to operate in Canada, but these licenses are determined by provincial governments, which has led to a provincial monopoly in Canada’s online gambling scene.
This hasn’t stopped offshore companies from offering their games to Canadian players, as they take advantage of the gray area in the regulations. While many of these casinos are fully licensed in other jurisdictions, the lack of Canadian licensing has resulted in the brick-and-mortar casino market being 4x bigger than the online casino market.
However, if the precedent set by Ontario proves to be successful, we can expect to see other provinces follow suit. This will make obtaining a license to operate an online casino in Canada a lot easier, which will, in turn, see a large influx of Canadian players. Canadians currently spend C$4 billion a year on offshore casinos; imagine how much they’ll spend when those casinos are fully regulated in Canada! It’s no wonder the growth of the gambling market is looking so promising and why Canada is expected to be a major player in the market.
