When it comes to legalized online gambling, only three states have hopped aboard—Delaware, Nevada, and New Jersey. Many other states, however, are weighing the pros and cons of implementing online gambling, and California and Pennsylvania are expected to be the next to dive in.
Legalizing online gambling is something that is beneficial not only to the casino owners, but to the states that regulate them, as gambling taxes are expected to generate millions of dollars in revenue on an annual basis.
However, regulated online gambling has fierce competition in the form of social gambling.
According to a recent report by Eilers Research and Adam Krejcik, social gambling generated $350 million in revenue in Q1 of 2014, while regulated online gambling only generated only $35 million in the same time frame.
However, there are many factors that contribute to the vast difference in revenue:
- Only 4% of the US population has access to online gambling, while 100% has access to social gambling.
- Online gambling has only been available since 2013, while social gambling has been around for over a decade.
- Online gambling is limited when it comes to game selections, while social gambling has far more games and websites to choose from.
- Online gambling is limited to geo-targeted gamblers, while social gambling is available to gamblers worldwide.
- Many credit card payment processors do not approve transactions for online casinos (such as AMEX), while social gaming payments are almost always approved.
It’s important to remember that although gamblers still pay to purchase chips when social gambling, they are essentially playing to game and will never win a cash prize.
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