When the World Paused, Die-Hard Bettors Kept Playing
Man, Vegas was like a ghost town not too long ago. I mean, despite the fact that the virus was still hitting hard and people were out there marching over George Floyd's tragic death, folks just couldn't stay away when the city started to crack open its doors again on June 4th. You should've seen the pics! Casinos that had been dead quiet for months suddenly had people crowding around tables, throwing dice and flipping cards, and yeah, some had masks on https://casinotop.be/.
It's not rocket science why they were back. Gamblers in the States were going stir crazy in lockdown. Unlike Brits, who could just hop online and place bets legally during the pandemic, Americans got a hot mess of different state laws to navigate. It's all over the place, really. We've got Delaware that went all in on online table games back in 2012. Then there's New Jersey, with Atlantic City and all that jazz, coming in hot a year later. Pennsylvania finally joined the virtual casino club last year. And Nevada, well, they've been cool with online poker since 2013, but that's it.
So, when everyone was locked up at home in April, folks in those states with the green light for online gambling went to town. Pennsylvanians bet like half a billion more than the month before. Delaware's online casinos? Their cash flow jumped by two-thirds. New Jersey was raking in 23% more. Even with everything shutting down, Nevada's poker rooms online were packed. Still, that's just a slice of America, only 8% of the population. And betting across state lines? That's a no-go—online casinos make darn sure you're physically in the state using all this fancy geofencing tech, snagging Wi-Fi, GPS, and IP address info.
Now, sports betting, that's a whole other ball game. Vegas used to have a monopoly on that action, but the Supreme Court changed the rules a couple of years back. Now, eighteen states have jumped on the bandwagon, and over 100 million Americans can legally place their bets. Guys like DraftKings and FanDuel, who mixed up fantasy sports with straight-up betting, are now all over the place. Fox, that big media giant, they're in on it too. And the old-school casino companies, like Caesars Entertainment, they're not just in Nevada anymore—they've spread out their sports betting wings.
But don't get it twisted, the gambling industry's been hit hard by the pandemic. With no major North American sports to bet on, bookies started taking bets on stuff like baseball from South Korea and football from Belarus. E-sports have also caught some serious wind, what with everyone glued to their screens and all gothamist. But none of that stuff brings in the big bucks like the MLB, NHL, or NBA. New Jersey's sports betting took a 68% nosedive in April alone.
Still, people with money on their minds are staying positive. Shares in DraftKings doubled since they popped up on the stock market in April. And sports betting might just have a moment later in the year. Baseball, hockey, basketball—they're all talking about making comebacks this summer. And the NFL is planning to kick things off in the fall, like always. Plus, with folks maybe not so keen on hanging out in crowded casinos, betting on sports cnn could be the new go-to for a safe, socially distant gamble. And for the die-hard fans who can't watch their teams play live, throwing down a few bucks might be the next best thing.
And it might even get easier to bet. State governments are feeling the pinch with less money coming in and more going out. So they might just decide to legalize and tax the whole sports betting thing. Worked before—back in 2008, during the recession, a bunch of states loosened up on gambling, and that meant new casinos, new tracks, and a nice bump in tax revenues. Now, some states are eyeballing sports betting pretty hard, like California, which could be huge. And others that are already in the game might just open up the floodgates to more online betting.
But here's the thing: for folks who've got a serious problem with gambling, the pandemic's not making life any easier. If anything, it's making it worse. People are getting laid off, the stock market's been on a rollercoaster, and that's just piling on the pressure to win back what's been lost. Toss in substance abuse issues and the loneliness from all this lockdown stuff, and it's rough going for anyone trying to kick the habit. Public health's got its hands full fighting the virus and doesn't have the cash to help people with gambling problems.
Even with local online casinos being mostly off-limits and sports leagues on pause, folks are finding ways to bet. These offshore online casinos that nobody regulates are still snatching up billions from American bettors bbc. And you've got games on social media where people can buy stuff in-app. Don't even get me started on the lotteries—they're booming. Like Kody Kinsley from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said, ""Those who are truly addicted to gambling will find a way to gamble no matter what.""
