A Profile of the Online Gambler
Online gambling at offshore sports books surpassed the handle of Las Vegas casinos last year for the first time ever. This article profiles the typical customer of an online gaming site.
Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB) March 19, 2004 -– A PROFILE OF THE ONLINE GAMBLER By
Robert Jay - Online gambling on sports in America has surpassed the total handle
of Las Vegas casino-based sports books.
A December, 2002 Congressional Report
by the US General Accounting Office stated that online gaming reached new
heights in 2002 as worldwide revenues topped $4 billion. Of that amount, over $2
billion was wagered by US residents. Bear Stearns backed up these findings by
estimating the worldwide market would have been in excess of $5 billion had many
American credit card providers not discontinued offering transfers to offshore
sports books. Meanwhile, the Nevada handle on sports books was less than $2
billion in 2002; this is the first time in a decade that the Nevada handle
dropped below $2 billion.
Certainly, part of the decline in the Nevada
handle can be blamed on less Americans traveling and an overall downturn in the
economy. Perhaps an even bigger factor, however, is the proliferation of slot
machines in Nevada casinos. Slots now represent 70% of the profits of Nevada
casinos and offer a 6% hold while sports books have an average 3% hold. Thus, it
is not surprising that sports books are losing square footage overall in casinos
while slots are gaining in space allocated to them.
According to Debbie
Silverman of Gone Gambling, an industry portal site, another big growth area for
offshore sports books is that many local bookmakers are referring business to
the offshore books for safety. Large players are also moving to the internet due
to more attractive odds available from the offshore books than are available in
Las Vegas. In addition, many offshore sports books attract players with bonuses
that you won’t find on The Strip. Anthony Wayne, spokesperson for licensed
Curacao-based sports book EWINNER.com (http://www.ewinner.com/), said that his company offers a 15%
initial deposit bonus to new depositors. “With all of the new competitors out
there,” said Wayne, “you almost have to do something special to try to attract
new players.”
The bonus situation is not any different in the other
popular areas of online gambling, notably bingo and lottery services. Bingo
House (http://www.bingohouse.com) offers a 100% initial bonus,
according to Bonnie Edwards, director of marketing. Edwards’ other site, Lucky
Lotto (http://www.luckylotto.com) offers a free $7 bet. The
demographics, however, are quite different. “Our players are predominantly
females 40-50 years old,” said Edwards.
The Congressional Report goes on
to state that one million Americans gamble online every day. One of the reasons
for the large amount of online sports bettors is the similarity between the
typical sports gambler and the typical heavy internet user, according to David
Lee, of Mandalay Bay casino. Lee stated that 77% of online sports gamblers are
men. They tend to be single, 25-34 years old, college educated, and with incomes
between $40,000 and $80,000 per year. A survey of 2900 internet users by online
gaming industry research company, The River City Group, backs up Lee’s findings.
The 2001 study indicated 74% of online gamblers are male and that they are among
the youngest, highest income, highest education group on the internet. They are
also technologically advanced, early adopters, and heavy wireless
users.
Jay Davis, president of Triumph Marketing, a marketing agency that
has clients in the online gaming industry, tends to agree with the conclusion of
the studies. “A typical customer for an online sports book is a male 25-40 with
an average income of $70,000 per year. They are typically college educated and
avid sports fans.”
Future growth of the online gaming industry will come
more rapidly on a worldwide basis than in the United States, says the
Congressional Report. Americans, which now represent half of the online gaming
revenues, are projected to be only 24% of the $14.5 billion worldwide market
anticipated in 2006. Japan is of extreme interest to the industry because its
household internet penetration of greater than 80% is the largest in the world
and it is a country nearly as obsessed with sports as America is. Countries with
even more long-term promise for the industry are China and Malaysia where
already two times more people have gambled on the internet than have purchased a
product online.
“Without question, the largest areas for growth are South
America and the Far East due to increased internet usage and cultures immersed
with a long history of gambling,” added Davis. “These markets have only a small
percentage of the saturation levels of North America and western Europe and
offer operators markets where the cost of acquisition (of new customers) is
remarkably lower.”
While international markets clearly offer an
opportunity for expansion, the offshore industry can continue to attract more
new players to the industry in all countries if it satisfies new player
concerns. According to the River City Group, the primary concerns of potential
new players include: a hassle free experience; quick payments; easy
instructions; attractive web sites; easy registration; secure credit card
transactions; certificates from consumer protection agencies; better odds;
ability to play for free; 24/7 customer service.
Since the first internet
gaming sites began appearing in 1995, 73 governments have approved some form of
internet gambling. The industry has grown from 900 to 1400 sites in the last two
years, according to The Internet Gambling Report. In recent months, however,
most industry analysts believe the amount of sites has actually declined. The
number of customers is not growing at the same pace as the number of sites and
“consolidation among operators is the most logical transgression within the
industry,” said Davis.
Today, only two states, Utah and Hawaii, have no
forms of gambling permitted. Although the United States has clearly not endorsed
internet sports gaming, it is interesting to note that more than 80% of horse
racing bets are now made away from the track at off track betting locations and
through other media like interactive television.
One other conclusion of
the Congressional Report is that most online players would prefer to play with a
“name brand” casino rather than those virtual unknown offshore books available
on the internet. With market share at the Las Vegas casinos continuing to
decline to the offshore sports books, casino operators can only hope that they
will soon be endorsed to operate online again.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/3/prweb112244.htm