Covid-19 and Online Gambling In India
There has been a dramatic rise in online gambling because of coronavirus lockdown. Globally, online gambling market is expected to have increased from nearly $59 billion in 2019 to nearly $67 billion in 2020.
Based on a joint study conducted by AlphaBeta and Illion, online gambling has increased by 67% in one week of April 2020.
For the prevention of Covid19, many people are compelled to stay at home with not many fun things to do. They can’t even get themselves busy with work. They can’t watch major sporting events since most of them have been canceled or postponed due to corona virus pandemic.
Therefore, many people are looking for some recreational activities like online casino games which they can enjoy from the comfort of their home. Online gambling not only offers fun to people but also provides them opportunities to win real money. So, the craze towards online gambling has skyrocketed in this lockdown period.
Global online market of gambling includes the generation of the revenue from online gaming activities which are accessed via internet using smartphones, laptops, and other devices. This is the market of gambling institutions that are into offering online casinos, sports betting, lotteries, bingo, card games and other online betting games.
Survey of betting habits
According to a survey conducted to analyze betting habits, regular online sports bettors are betting in other forms of online betting games as often or even more frequently during the lockdown because of the unavailability of enough sporting fixtures.
Based on that survey, respondents of about 1000 seemed to have reduced their gambling at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak. But that’s not the case with regular gamblers, who said that they were betting even more than before.
Undoubtedly, there is a lack of opportunities for wagering on real sport but those bettors are resorting to online slot games and other casino games which are considered to be more addictive than sports betting.
The result of the survey also shows that 41% of bettors had registered new online account since the coronavirus lockdown took place.
Study of online gambling in the UK during lockdown
Based on a study in the UK, the data has shown that search interest in online casinos has raised to level higher than ever before in the UK since the coronavirus lockdown started.
The movement of gambling online in this lockdown period because of the closure of land-based casinos and termination of sports events is also shown by the Google Trends. Many people are searching the web for the best live casino games to enjoy the experience of land-based casinos from the comfort of their homes.
In this lockdown, gambling has dropped in overall if offline gambling is considered, but online gambling has grown by leaps and bounds.
The number of people playing online casino games like slot machines, card games and virtual sports has dramatically increased. The data indicates that engaged gambling enthusiasts are playing more time and with more money during the lockdown period.
Coronavirus lockdown effect in online gambling of the US
During this lockdown period, online gambling has become an integral part of the gambling world. So, according to the Morgan Stanley analyst, the effect of coronavirus lockdown could encourage more states of the US to make online gambling legal.
Based on a report from New Jersey, online gambling in New Jersey, excluding sports betting, rose to $65 million in March, i.e. increment by 66%.
According to the Global Poker which is an online social poker room, there has been a growth of 43% in the access of online poker websites in the US since the coronavirus lockdown occurred. Also, it states that there has been an increase of 255% in the number of poker players playing the game for the first time.
Online gambling in locked-down India
The same effect of growth in online gambling has been seen in India too during the lockdown period. During this period, most of the Indian youths are turning to online casino games like Rummy and Poker. Teen Patti, one of the most played card games in India, has become one of the top 10 card games in the virtual world of gambling.
The data shows that 11% of internet traffic in the world comes from online gambling. Based on the report by the Law Commission of India, the current online gaming market is $360 million and the expectation is that this worth of online gaming market further increases to $1 billion by 2021.
Conclusion
The various studies and survey reports show that people’s craze towards online gambling has increased during this coronavirus lockdown. This growth in online gambling can be attributed to the human nature of looking for recreational activities and the present advanced mobile and internet technology.
Although gambling in land-based casinos and real sports events is at halt, more people than ever are involved in online gambling. This growing craze has, surely, made online gambling a major part of the gambling world.
There is a myriad of online gambling sites offering various types of casino games and virtual sports betting with a wide variety of betting options to their customers. We suggest you to enjoy your online gambling experience by always playing on a trusted online gambling site.
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