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Things are looking up for the gambling industry. Online casinos have been thriving for a while, largely because of the pandemic, but this had not been the case for their land-based competitors until very recently. Now, offline casinos are welcoming visitors again, and more states across the country are on their way to legalizing sportsbooks. It looks like the next couple of years will be great for everyone who owns a gambling business or just enjoys gambling leisurely.
Commercial casinos have reopened everywhere (where they are legal)
With over one-half of the population fully vaccinated, it is getting safer for the entertainment businesses to reopen again, even indoors. Land-based casinos are not an exception: state authorities have allowed gambling establishments to accept visitors again (even though some restrictions are still in place due to safety concerns). Obviously, this does not apply to the states where gambling is illegal in the first place, like Connecticut. Players from there can visit Indian casinos on tribal lands, such as Northern Quest Casino in Washington and Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina.
In fact, the reopening wave started back in May. Idaho was the first state to reopen a casino on May 1, and others soon followed. By June 19, all twenty-five states where at least some forms of offline casino gambling are legal allowed commercial land-based casinos to open their doors again. They do not even have capacity restrictions at the moment.
Online gambling keeps growing
But some of the consequences of the pandemic are not reversible, including the growth of the online gambling industry. As land-based casinos have been closed across the country for almost the entire 2020 and part of 2021, a lot of new platforms offering casino games and slots to play online have emerged. Most experts predict that online gambling will keep growing in years to come because players have got used to it over the last year and a half.
However, at the moment, only a handful of states have legalized online casino gambling: Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New Jersey, and Delaware. Michigan is expected to join them next year. It is safe to say that other states will follow at some point too.
Legislative changes
Partly because of the pandemic, there have been some legislative changes recently. One of them is the legalization of sports betting, which is a wise decision, given that sports betting taxes can help support the sports industry recovering from the pandemic. Over 2020-2021, Arizona, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland, Nebraska, South Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming have all approved legislation legalizing sports betting but have not enacted it yet.
Betting lovers from Maryland were hoping for sportsbooks to begin accepting bets before the NFL season that begins this September. Sadly, at this point, this does not look realistic (for Maryland or other states that have just legalized betting). Hoping that betting opens by the beginning of the NBA season in October is also a bit ambitious.
2021 may still go in history as the best year casino owners have ever had
Last year was obviously tragic for the entire offline entertainment industry, including land-based casinos. But even with the late start, it looks like 2021 is offline casino owners’ year. The report by the American Gambling Association suggests that this year’s revenues will likely be higher than the $43.6 billion grossed in 2019, the most successful year in the history of American casinos so far.
While there are still concerns related to the Delta variant, if everything stays on track, land-based casinos should be just fine. After all, players who prefer going to actual casinos instead of gambling in online ones were deprived of their favorite entertainment for quite a while. It is only natural that they are trying to make up for the lost time.