LAS VEGAS, NV -- According to a recent study by top gaming analyst Sherman Bradley, online casinos are not recession-proof, as industry pundits once thought. The results of his month-long study concluded that offshore gambling sites are struggling to meet quarterly expectations due to a world-wide recession caused by the recent financial crisis.
As you know, Sherman Bradley is the Senior Editor at Online Casino Advisory, a well-respected news organization focused on internet casino news, as well as land-based casino news.
In recent months, Mr. Bradley has reported extensively on the downfall of land-based casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and Macao due to the economic crunch. His latest work proves online casinos have also been hit by the crisis.
There was a consensus in the industry that stated online casinos were 'recession-proof', because players who normally spent money traveling to land-based casinos could cut their costs dramatically in these tough times by staying home and playing online casino games. The added expenditures of playing in Atlantic City or Las Vegas was expected to convert players away from land-based casinos.
The conversion to internet casinos has not happened as expected. New player deposits and recurring bets are down. Revenue from existing players has also fallen.
"Players are still playing," Bradley said, "but they are not playing or depositing nearly as much as they were [before the crisis]."
Some say the falloff at online casinos around the world is part of a much larger problem, mainly fallout from the UIGEA and Microgaming's exit from the US market. According to Bradley, these two culprits are not the main reason for the decline at online casinos.
"The operators we spoke to are still seeing player deposits, and they are not seeing an increase in the number of complaints from players who say their deposits were declined. The players simply aren't depositing as much as they were, and more people than ever are playing in fun-mode," Bradley said.
"This tells me a couple things," Bradley concluded, "that online casinos are not these evil, addiction-wielding devices that destroy lives. To me, this is proof that people only spend what they can afford on this form of entertainment, and that they can certainly control themselves on the Internet. It also tells me that gambling in any form, is not recession-proof."
Online casinos were the only part of Bradley's study. He did not analyze online bingo, poker, or sportsbooks. The study consisted of analyzing unofficial stats of certain online casinos, as well as interviewing a few online casino operators. Bradley believes he studied and interviewed enough online casinos to make semi-blanket statements across the industry, but he is quick to point out that his study was unscientific.
About Online Casino Advisory
Online Casino Advisory is an independent reviewer of online gaming sites and a leading reporter of online and land based casino news. The site specializes in online casino reviews sending out 'Advisories' when an advisory is merited. The online company first made its mark by offering full sized free casino games that could be played without interruption on their flash platform. The addition of Sherman Bradley to their team led to the official Boycott of Kentucky following a state seizure of 141 online gambling domain names.
