What Impact the Pandemic Has on Growth of
Casino Gaming Equipment Market?
In the wake of the economic devastation wrought upon the human population by the pandemic, casino gaming appears to be one of the many business structures to be strongly affected. Physical casinos have ended up closed after various government laws were put in place requiring people to stay at home and replace free offline casino games with online games, and any form of growth in the sector appears to have stalled. Here, we delve into the depths of the impact of COVID-19 on casino gaming, with the casino gaming equipment market and other sectors of the gambling industry, as it becomes clear that it isn’t necessarily all doom and gloom.
The Casino Gaming Equipment Market in the Wake of the Pandemic
Casino gaming equipment has already seen a drastic drop in use thanks to the pandemic. It goes without saying, of course, that the market for this equipment has experienced a decline in purchases as well since any growth in physical casinos as an industry has come to a standstill. Some of the commonly purchased casino gaming equipment includes:
- Gaming tables that include roulette, baccarat, blackjack, poker and more
- Winnings display monitors
- Physical slot machines
- Chips, dices and cards
- Miscellaneous items, like chip trays, shufflers, layouts and more.
No new up and coming physical casinos have been considering an expansion in this pandemic, and even existing casinos are not exactly looking to make equipment replacements at the moment. The market for casino gaming equipment has admittedly been hit hard, with drastic drops in sales that have even driven some of the manufacturing companies to closure.
Ways That Physical Casinos Have Been Affected in General
The main reason why the casino gaming equipment market has been on the decline during the pandemic is that the physical casinos’ businesses, in general, have also been drastically affected in the following ways.
Forced Closure
As part of government directives to stop the spread of the virus, plenty of non-essential businesses have been requested to close in order to prevent contact between people meeting on the premises. Physical casinos are not considered to be an essential business since they exist solely for entertainment. Plenty of physical locations have remained closed for the better part of 2020. The lack of business has even meant permanent closure for a lot of casino businesses as a whole due to the inability to meet recurring expenses to keep venues open such as rent and utilities.
Decline in Profits
Having physical casinos suddenly go from packed with playing customers to almost no clients at all was a massive blow to the revenue of many establishments. People were asked to stay at home and could therefore not spend their money on casino gaming venues at all. Profits experienced a sharp decline, with a majority of these businesses going to gaining almost no revenue at all.
Restrictions for Customers in Gradual Reopening
There are some countries that have managed to flatten the curve, significantly reducing the spread of the virus entirely. For these economies, it has been a series of slow and cautious steps towards normalcy, where they’ve recently allowed the reopening of physical casinos with new conditions. Rules of social distancing still continue to apply, which means limitations on the number of customers that can be playing inside the premises at any one time. It is a drop in the number of customers that have also impacted casino gaming profits.
Vaccine Development Brings Hope to Casino Gaming
Although the effects of the pandemic have been strongly felt by a majority of physical casinos, there is good news around the corner. Experts have made great strides in developing a vaccine for the virus, the most notable of which is the United States, which plans to begin mass vaccinations for its citizens in late 2020. Other countries are following suit in an attempt to quell the spread of the virus, which means that a return to normal economic operations is the light at the end of the tunnel for most casino gaming establishments. In time they will be back to their naturally robust nature, and casino gaming equipment will once again be in demand, perhaps even more so now that establishments will be looking to kick things off with pomp and colour.
The Other Side of the Casino Gaming Coin
It would be remiss to only speak of physical casinos without mentioning how the other side of the gambling industry has fared in the wake of this pandemic. In a surprising turn of events, online casinos have fared even better than before, for an interesting mix of reasons.
Staying at Home Led to More Online Gambling
Government directives for people to stay at home led to the subsequent decline in the prominence of physical gaming casinos all over the globe. Customers who would normally frequent these premises ended up looking into online casinos as an alternative since many of the physical games also have also been developed for online play. This resulted in a surge of online casino gaming patrons who now have a place to continue enjoying themselves. Furthermore, games such as VIP Roulette Online have soared in popularity.
New Account Registrations
A lot of the people who enjoyed their spare time in outdoor activities were also faced with nothing but time and boredom on their hands when the coronavirus pandemic hit. Many of them tried online casino gaming for the first time through various platforms, and this was one of the contributors to the spike in the number of registrations. Various online casinos enjoyed the boost in revenue that came with the soaring popularity of many of the game varieties offered, such as:
- Online slot games, where spin to win is the goal.
- Online table games, such as blackjack, baccarat, roulettes, craps and various card games.
- Specialty games like bingo, lotteries and more.
Lack of Sports Betting Avenues
With the initial shutdown of most outdoor entertainment activities, sports took one of the hardest hits as all games, tournaments, and championships ended up suspended or cancelled. Along with this went sports betting, as betters now had nowhere to place their stakes. Many found their way to online casino gaming, which was still bursting with a variety of games for them to place their bets!
While physical casinos have been dealt a big blow and are still on the path to recovery, online casinos have risen to pick up the slack.
The demand for casino gaming equipment has stagnated at best, with many of the physical casinos either still in closure or operating with plenty of restrictions. It is one of the more notable effects of the pandemic on non-essential businesses as a whole.
However, there is a growing demand for software as online casino gaming continues to be on the rise. More franchises are developing new and better games to meet this growing stream of play for online casinos.
As the pandemic eventually comes under control, there is hope for the return of physical casinos and the demand for equipment needed to keep many of them open and running. The growth of the equipment market is sure to resume; it is merely a matter of when.