For decades, the online casino sector was considered little more than a side-show to the real action taking place in illustrious brick-and-mortar venues around the world in gaming hotspots like Monaco, Macau and Las Vegas.
However over the course of the 21st century so-far, this sector has enjoyed consistent growth at a time when the wider casino market has begun to slow. While it’s true that major investment is still taking place in the physical casino industry, with the likes of Las Vegas Sands shifting their priorities towards developing its footprint in Asia, it’s really a matter of market ceiling.
After all, the number of people willing to actually travel to a physical casino is a much smaller figure than those that are likely to pick up and play an online casino game on their laptop or smartphone.
This is especially true with the rise of the smartphone, which has had a big impact on the way the online casino market is structured. That’s because many believe the smartphone is the very future of the wider casino industry. But why is this? Let’s explore some key considerations below.
Accessibility
There’s no escaping the fact that smartphones are an extremely efficient way to connect goods and services providers with their customers. After all, unlike a physical casino which people will have to travel to play, people normally have their smartphone with them in their pocket.
That makes them even more accessible than the promise held out by the legacy online casino industry which got its start on web browsers and clients accessed through desktop computers.
With a mobile-optimized casino, someone is at liberty to play as and when it suits them – be that on their lunch break, in bed, or when commuting. Added to this is the fact that a growing majority of people, especially those newly coming online from developing markets, will most often be using a smartphone over another type of computer.
After all, they’re smaller, often cheaper, and easier to connect to cellular data, something the online casino sector knows well and is investing in leveraging.
Bespoke Deals
The online casino market has, for a number of years, focused much of its promotional work on providing users with bespoke deals and offers for sign-ups. In light of this, dedicated platforms like Bonuses.com have sprung up focused on collating the best Casino Bonuses available to gamers in specific regions.
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Crucially, the dynamic nature of these services, replete with competitive welcome deals and the like – make accessing casino products through smartphones even more cost-effective, leaning in to the sector’s growth potential. These platforms have the ability to furnish users with region-specific offers also, meaning that someone signing up through a mobile device will always be able to make the most of deals that suit their requirements and local regulations.
Tie-Ins with New Tech
Any major new technology that comes along is going to primarily seek to integrate its design with mobile platforms. With the recent launch of Apple’s mixed reality headset, the Vision Pro, the notion of the metaverse and of spatial computing is back on people’s radar.
While it’s hard to predict exactly how we will be computing in ten years’ time, any brand or product looking to leverage tech for the widest appeal is still likely going to have to reckon with the smartphone representing the lowest common denominator.
That may likely even be true if VR headsets take as people expect, as the most efficient way to run these would be off the back of existing mobile platforms and devices.
In light of this, innovation in the casino gaming market is going to increasingly have to accommodate the demands of mobile platforms. We’ve already seen this process underway, with the majority of online casinos operating today now providing website browsing experiences optimized for mobile devices.
The same goes for the growing dissemination of AI models like ChatGPT. The way people are going to primarily use this technology is going to be shaped by prevailing smartphone design trends, and any sector looking to enjoy steady growth into the 2030s is going to have to pivot away from desktops as their ‘default’ form factor.
About the Author/s
The New Jersey Digest is a new jersey magazine that has chronicled daily life in the Garden State for over 10 years.
