According to a recent analysis by the market research firm Data Bridge, the online casino market is anticipated to increase by 13.7% between 2021 and 2028. Over the past few years, online gambling has grown in popularity, and analysts predict that trend won’t reverse anytime soon.
Despite the fact that many gamblers now prefer playing online rather than in a casino, historically, players have preferred playing in land-based establishments. This shift in perception cannot be attributed to a single cause; rather, a variety of factors have made internet casinos more alluring than physical ones.
The flexibility of internet casinos over traditional casinos is their biggest advantage. Many of these casino websites provide mobile play, so you can gamble whenever and wherever you like. Many people now prefer using their phones as their primary gaming device because doing so is far more handy than having to drive to your neighbourhood casino.
Online casinos’ more generous promos and loyalty programmes are another factor in their success. There are very few live casinos in Canada that give a welcome bonus to new customers, and their continuous promos are much more alluring and simple to take advantage of than those at a land-based casino. Even without having to make a deposit to their website, some online casinos provide no-deposit bonuses that let you win real money!
While prizes and flexibility are crucial, security has long been the main barrier preventing players from playing at online casinos. People didn’t feel as though an online casino was a secure place for their money or that the game was rigged in the casino’s favour. In a live casino, you can watch the dealer deal cards or spin the roulette wheel, so even if you lose, you know the game was fair. Online casinos had a difficult time overcoming the perception of impropriety, but now that they have, they are benefiting from it.
More people are placing deposits and playing games at these online casinos as a result of the tight licencing regime in many nations, which gives them respectability. To ensure that these online casinos are providing fair games, protecting their players’ funds, and honouring their promos, gambling commissions and regulatory bodies have been set up.
Canada enters the picture at this point. As the first Canadian province to do so, Ontario now grants gaming licences to foreign operators who abide by the AGOC’s (Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario) rules. Canada requires a licence for internet casinos to operate, but the provinces control these licences, creating a provincial monopoly in the country’s online gambling market.
This hasn’t stopped foreign corporations from making their games available to Canadian users since they exploit the regulatory ambiguity. The brick-and-mortar casino market is four times larger than the internet casino sector, despite the fact that many of these casinos have full licences in other countries.
But if Ontario’s example is effective, we may anticipate seeing other provinces adopt a similar strategy. This will make it much simpler to secure a licence to run an online casino in Canada, which will result in a significant increase in the number of Canadian players. Imagine how much Canadians will spend when offshore casinos are fully regulated in Canada—they presently spend C$4 billion annually on them! It is not surprising that the gaming business is projected to grow rapidly and that Canada will have a significant impact on the industry.
