The first person to get sick from the then-unknown virus Covid-19 was reported in the month of November 2019. Ever since it has ravaged lives and business in all continents and the casino business is no exception. However, online casinos such as Baazi247.com saw some uptick in new players playing the same card games like Teen Patti, online Andar Bahar game among others.
In this article, we will look at how Covid-19 affected the casino business and how online casinos present themselves as alternatives.
The Impact on Casino Business
After the first cases in November, it took about three months for the virus to go mainstream and get into the everyday conversation of people’s lives. Different world governments started taking different approaches once the virus showed up on their shores. One clear guideline from the World Health Organization was “stay at home orders” or lockdowns.
There is no point in explaining lockdown in this article as I am sure wherever you are from dear reader, you faced it too.
Many industries went bankrupt and many more are on the brink of bankruptcy. When there is a global pandemic going on, it made little sense for people to go to casinos and enjoy themselves.
Now after a vaccine and possible reopening of all economy, damning reports from casino industries are coming in.
Las Vegas casino giant MGM reported a billion-dollar operating loss and the reports from Macau, the gambling nation, aren’t inspiring either. The Netherlands reports losses in a number of multiple million euros in just the first 3 months of the lockdown.
These loss number just represents the money lost by casinos but the real number is much higher if we take job losses into account. Thousands upon thousands of jobs such as dealers, casino servers, administration, kitchen were lost in this Covid-19 pandemic. The global unemployment rate is at an all-time high.
The Reopening
As with all things about this pandemic and Covid-19, the re-opening wasn’t smooth sailing either. After people began to understand the way this virus worked and possible vaccines on its way, things started reopening cautiously. But a case here and there kept popping up throwing all the reopening efforts into a frenzy.
When a worker gets infected, all other exposed workers must immediately quarantine for at least 14 days. This made reopening very hard. The casinos took very strong measures to make sure the players and workers were safe.
The number of available games is greatly reduced. Only core casino games are played. Such games that needed people standing closer to each other were avoided to enforce the social distancing protocols.
The Hotels running the casinos were also operating on minimum occupancy and the services were greatly reduced and sanitizing protocols were followed strongly.
The buffet dinner, one of the major attractions of the land casinos are also temporarily shut on most places.
The smoking area was also greatly reduced as the virus transferred quickly indoors and smoking indoors was prohibited even in smokers’ friendly casinos.
The land casinos another attraction is their shows. The casino put on comedians, actors, musicians, and concerts to lit the place up and make a wonderful ambiance. But thanks to the virus, the shows are all canceled too.
The casino are serving drinks with caution and many casinos have made masks mandatory. The casino staff also wear mask compulsorily.
As a result, fewer and fewer people are going to the casino. The casino scene post-pandemic is nothing like the people think when they hear casinos.
The Online Casinos rise
The internet was the only thing thankfully that worked for most people in this plague. As all casinos were close, naturally, people looked for alternatives. The online casino were the clear alternatives.
Thanks to this pandemic, by one estimate, the online casino market is will grow from 59 billion dollars to 93 billion in 2023. The same report claims that online poker players saw a rise of 225% in lockdowns.
Frankly, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody that this is happening. In lock downs, people desperately missed human interactions and casinos too for most seasoned players. The development of online casinos to make them more user-friendly and transparent paid the investors big time.
The Future
The stay at home order put many people inside their homes in this Covi-19 pandemic. In these times of Covid-19, the online casino has the upper hand against land casinos. With vaccines on their way, it may change quickly. The ambiance and the feel complete with foods and drinks that one gets from casinos inland is impossible for online casinos to replicate. So when things get back to normal, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody, when land casinos run in full swing and flip this advantage that online casinos have today.
Having said that, online casinos had a great time this pandemic, ironically. The people who would never log in to online casinos did for the first time. They even liked it. Make no mistake, the online casinos will retain this large swath of new players.
Among other countries, India saw a rise in the new players entering the online casino market. Online casinos like Baazi247 reported a staggering number of new players playing slot games and other card games like Baccarat and Dragon-Tiger among others. You may also like to read: How do I start playing at online casinos?
