Gambling is without doubt a global business that generates billions in revenue around the world each year. From placing a bet on your favourite soccer team to playing online poker, learning how to win roulette at the casino to having a flutter at your local horse racing track, there are so many ways and places to have a wager or play for money. From high rollers to people who bet once a year, whether it is on the Kentucky Derby as part of an annual tradition or the Superbowl just for fun, gambling is often seen as spanning the cultural divides.
Beyond the ubiquitous accessibility opened up by online gambling, and when you go past the fact that this is a pastime that is loved by people from many nations, crossing a range of ages and socio-economic levels, gambling is, put simply, a business that contributes to many economies around the world. The range of business models is vast, encompassing everything from on track betting posts to high street bookmakers, online casino game play to high-stakes poker in casinos. From Las Vegas to Macau, London to Paris, Atlantic City to Sydney, this is an industry that fuels many local economies and shows no signs of slowing.
With all this said, it is perhaps time to ask about the bigger picture, the wider discussion to be had about gambling. This is, namely, whether the emergence of online betting and easily available betting opportunities that it gives people is unquestionably beneficial to global economies, or whether the more granular examination of how it affects people, neighbourhoods, societies reveal that gambling can have negative impacts on some levels. It is only when we look at the issues that gambling causes that we can at least try and address this.
For the people who own the casinos on the Las Vegas strip or the gambling resorts of Macau, to those who are proprietors of online casino sites or gambling apps, it is hard to deny that they are making money, and often a lot of it. Of course, this is an entire legal, globally successful industry and nobody is suggesting that these businesses are anything but another sector that is doing well and delivering what consumers want. But where there are millions who enjoy fun flutters on the horses and casual online gambling fun, problem gambling affects a minority of others.
On a purely financial level, and from a global business perspective, the future of online gambling does have a propitious outlook. Although there are many millions who play and gamble in person, from the glamour of Las Vegas to local betting shops, online gambling is now not only mainstream, but also one of the primary platforms and places that many people chose to do their gambling. To be fair, the industry does put safeguards in place, such as daily betting limits and access to helplines for those who may think they have a gambling problem.
The point being made is that gambling where gambling may be a boom for the local, national or international economic growth and fiscal generation, it can simultaneously impact peoples’ personal economic position and, in some cases, the fiscal position of entire communities. Thankfully, as with things like alcohol consumption, gambling is enjoyed responsibly by the vast majority who indulge in it, but the reality that there is money to be made and money to be lost, often at the expense of those who gamble and to the benefit of those who glean from that loss, it is still an industry that divides opinion.
When it comes to online businesses and sectors that have made huge gains from taking their products and services into the virtual world, few have exploded and become as globally successful as online gambling. From established casinos that are pumping millions into recreating their most popular in-person games for the ultimate online experience, to standalone apps and websites that offer high-quality, high-rolling gambling opportunities to anyone who has internet access and money, this is a business landscape and model that has almost exponential growth potential.
It is not only the technical advancements in terms of the online gaming experience people can now enjoy, but also the hardware too. With smartphones, tablets, and desktop devices now offering almost identical levels of online capability, gambling on the go or playing casino games wherever you have a screen is now accessible, easy, and available around the world. This is a previously local pastime that is now a global phenomenon, and to the gambling industry and owners, this would appear to make their investments and prospects a fairly safe bet.
Returning to the overarching question as to whether online gambling is good for global economies, the answer will never be a simple “yes” or “no”. Globally and locally, especially where online gambling companies supply mass employment for people like developers, coders, gambling experts, designers and more, the industry does seem to have a positive economic impact. Personally, for those who perhaps gamble more than they can afford to lose, perhaps the benefits are not there. Either way, this is an industry that generates billions, so on a purely fiscal level, it can be argued that economies around the world will continue to enjoy the benefits that continue to flow from the sector.