Gambling has always been a popular activity, however, it seems that in the 21st century it is becoming more popular than ever before. The reasons for this are numerous. For one, society has become more open towards the idea. There are very few countries in the world right now that outright have criminalized gambling. Thanks to the success of gambling destinations like Las Vegas, Atlantic City, and Macau, cities around the world have built casinos, hoping to get a slice of the gambling industry pie.
Another reason for the increase of interest in gambling is the rise of accessibility to it. For example, in the past, casinos were few and far between, and often times had a strict dress code. Today, however, casinos and slot machines are plentiful, and while some of them retain the strict dress code of old, most casinos today are open to anyone.
Another factor in the rise of gambling’s accessibility is the advent and subsequent popularization of the online casino. The trend first began in the early 2000s, however, it only became popular recently, and in the USA especially, real money casinos online have drastically risen in popularity in the past two years. So, the question arises, why is it that online casinos have seen a steady rise in the American market in the past two years? Let us take a look at some factors.
Legality
Up until recently, online gambling was largely illegal in the States. Indeed, even today, there are only six states in the entire country which have made all forms of online gambling legal, as not all states allow both online gambling in the form of casinos but do accept sports betting exclusively. These states are Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, West Virginia, Delaware and Connecticut. Apart from these six, there are no American states which have legalized all forms of online gambling, however, online betting and online poker is legal in quite a lot of places in America, and, in fact, many states are considering lifting the ban on online gambling.
Accessibility
We touched upon this a bit previously, but, online gambling is a lot more easily accessible than land-based casinos. For one, in order to gamble online, all you need to do is find a trustworthy, licensed website, which features all your favorite games, and then register an account. Once that is done, you can play any game you like.
But, now that we know some of the reasons why gambling online is getting more popular, we need to talk about the future of the industry. Let’s take a look at why experts believe that iGaming will see a strong year in 2022, and will only become more popular in the future.
The Future of iGaming
As we said, in the United States, the past two years have been huge for online gambling and betting. Gamblers, suddenly, found themselves at home, and in order to get their fix, they moved on from land-based casinos to online. And now, 2 years later, there is no looking back. Now that many have seen how convenient online gambling is, they have no desire nor reason to return to land-based casinos.
And of course, the more gamblers move from land-based casinos to online gambling sites, the more prospective gamblers will become interested in the process. Gamblers want to play with as many people as possible, so it is natural that they would flock to the places where the most amount of other gamblers congregate. In 2022, that seems to be the online gambling and poker sites.
On top of that, online casinos can be accessed from most electronic devices, including smartphones. There is nary a person left in the world that doesn’t own a smartphone, which means that gamblers can access their favorite games from anywhere, so long as they have a secure connection.
