Could Mobile Casinos Replace Offline Counterparts?

Recent events have had a big impact on many aspects of our life as the coronavirus pandemic has redefined what normal is for many of us – but as the greenlight has now been given for business across the world to reopen and lockdown measures start to ease – the hardest hit sectors have been those relying on guests attending the location, and has had a big impact on many that have had to recently reopen.

One of these examples can be found in casinos – towards the end of June it had been announced that Las Vegas would reopen the doors to its casinos and hotels after nearly three months of closures but the reopening didn’t go as well as many had hoped – although measures were put in place for employees such as the mandatory requirement to wear masks, the same measures weren’t expected of guests, and despite plexiglass barriers at tables and bars, social distancing remained non-existent. As expected, this led to a huge surge in new cases for the state forcing change as mandatory mask requirements and other safety measures were put in place, but the state is still seeing day on day increases despite these changes. 

At the same time, the representation of mobile casinos during this same period of time has only gone up – as more of us have been stuck at home, many have turned to online gaming alternatives to stay entertained over the past few months and mobile casinos have been at the center of this growth in mobile gaming. Despite recent regulation changes that reduced participation options such as a recent ban on credit card betting and increased authority for the initiative known as gamstop, a number of operators such as Maximum Casinos are still providing a non gamstop alternative for many players, and may also be a replacement for offline locations whilst they either remain close or run a high risk of infection by attending.

Not to say that mobile casinos could ever completely replace brick and mortar locations, but there is a chance here for many to change their habits – it has been suggested that it could be quite some time before life returns to an old normal, and likely that social distancing and other measures to prevent infection may be around for a longer period of time – only those more risk averse are currently attending traditional casinos forgoing a lot of advice to stay home, and this may lead those currently staying at home to be less likely to change habits in the near future – it’s possible we may see this current surge in mobile casino usage remain high for the foreseeable future and only dip once safety returns to offline alternatives, but it is also probably safe to say that much of what is currently happening may at least in the short term damage the reputation of traditional brick and mortar locations and only go to enhance the virtues of modern online alternatives that have kept players entertained throughout lockdown.