Online Casinos Leave land-based gambling Behind

April 14, 2009

Many land-based gambling venues, such as Atlantic City casinos, are faced with economic difficulties beyond the recession. Like newspapers, these gaming spots might have to face the natural technological evolution to online casinos and Internet news sources.

Newspapers have had to accept the switch of public tastes from printed copies to online news presentations. Earlier this year, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the oldest newspaper in Washington state, stopped its presses, moving to an Internet-only format.

Both the Tribune Company, owners of the Chicago Tribune and several other papers, and the New York Times Company are facing turbulent financial times, and possibly bankruptcy. The Times has threatened to halt publication of the hallowed Boston Globe unless union workers make major concessions.

And almost every paper in the country has raised prices while drastically cutting content.

The advantages of the Internet cannot be denied. Nostalgia may help a few businesses remain as quaint reminders of yesterday, but the future marches on.

The gambling industry is in much the same situation. Online casinos allow players to avoid travel and hotel costs, give them freedoms such as smoking which may be denied in a public casino, and grant convenient access on a moment's notice, requiring no elaborate planning to enjoy a little gaming.

Internet gambling doesn't cost its operators billions in capital expenditures or overhead expenses. There are no thousands of employees to pay, no physical location to constantly maintain or upgrade.

OCA senior gaming analyst Sherman Bradley says, "By saving all the money land gaming is forced to invest, Internet casinos are able to provide far better returns on slot machines. Versions of table games whose slight profit precludes their installation at land operations are readily available at online gambling sites."

Bradley says this includes such games as $1 blackjack, penny slots, head-to-head poker, and more.

It is part of human nature to resist change, but the move to online gambling is simply the inevitable result of technological innovation, asserts Bradley. "Land gaming is headed the way of horse-drawn carts; it may be fun as an occasional lark, but it won't serve ever again as the industry mainstay."