There has been no shortage of negative press surrounding online gambling lately. While it is widely accepted that the house edge in online casinos is higher than that of land based casinos, it is also accepted that the overall popularity of online casinos is on the rise.
We’ve been looking at the numbers. And we’ve also been paying attention to the development of the gambling industry, and particularly the development of online gambling.
Online Gambling in Numbers
One of the most telling statistics in the history of online gambling is the growth of the industry as a whole. From the first online slot demo to the rise of the microgaming platform, gambling has been online for more than a decade.
And yet it is only in the last few years that online gambling has really gained a foothold. The figures are telling.
The biggest online gambling sites have been overtaking the market in terms of number of users since early 2005. The graph below shows that the growth of the number of users has been on a steady incline for the past 5 years.
This is likely to be down to the fact that the internet and online gambling was still new and not well-known. It didn’t really have a huge market until recently.
Online gambling as a whole is a much bigger industry than most people think, with a value of more than $65 billion. That’s about the same as the value of the American sports betting industry.
When you look at the statistics, the number of users who play on the top online casinos is even higher. The above graph shows that the number of users per month has grown consistently for the past 5 years.
This is likely to be down to the fact that the internet has become mainstream. With more and more slot demo people using the internet, people have become more comfortable with online gambling.
The overall value of online gambling as a whole has also grown. In 2005, the value of online gambling was $2.5 billion. By the end of 2008, that had grown to $10.6 billion.
The growth in online gambling is likely to be due to the fact that gambling was much more stigmatized a few years ago.
When you think of online gambling, you probably think of the gambling sites that have been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Sites like Full Tilt, Amaya, and AbsoluteX are all examples of online gambling that went bankrupt.