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Both online and land based casinos are evolving by the time, but online casino games have appeared to be more flexible and adaptive to the changes while land based casinos have remained the same. The online casino games are more comfortable, safe, secure, customized to the modern mediums with great graphics, animations and clear audio giving. The Philippine has allowed land-based casinos to accept bets online, in a move that could help operators mitigate losses from the pandemic. Gaming stocks rose.

Anyone who’s ever been in a casino will have been struck almost straight away by the sense of excitement that’s in the air. The flashing lights, the insistent sounds of the slots beckoning you to play and the over-arching atmosphere of glamour that makes it a quite unique experience.

Nowhere in the world encapsulates the thrill of the casino quite like Las Vegas and ever since the 1930s it has been a mecca for anyone wanting to try their luck. Many believe that the city’s true heyday was in the 1950s and 60s when it was the era of the Rat Pack and the world was really starting to experience the post-war boom.

But the last couple of decades have been a little more difficult for land-based casinos and today Las Vegas is seeing its gaming revenues on a steady decline.

For example, the figures released for December 2017 saw them fall 3.2% lower than for the corresponding month in 2016. Several reasons have been put forward for this decline and one of the key ones has been the meteoric rise of the online casinos which first started to appear on the scene in the late 1990s.

One only has to look to the UK to see just how great their success, along with other forms of online gambling, has been. Gambling Commission figures show that remote betting now accounts for 34% of the market share, the largest single sector.

The figures may tell their own story, but on their own they can’t explain exactly why this shift has been taking place. One has to compare the distinctive features of online casinos with those of traditional land-based ones to get a true insight.

Why choose online?

One obvious difference is that to play in an online casino all you need is an internet connection whether at home, on a break at work or anywhere with wi-fi. Plus all the best online casinos are fully optimised for mobile so you really can play anywhere – so there’s no need to get all dressed up and get yourself down to the casino.

Another great advantage is that the pace of play can be much quicker in an online casino, which is especially good news if you have a limited time slot to play in.

For example, in a real casino you might find that 50 hands of blackjack are played an hour but online this can be up to 200 an hour – ideal if you like the action to be faster paced. It has to be said that the social aspect of attending a brick and mortar casino is something that you will miss out on when playing online – although technology has already started to address this, as we’ll discover a little later on.

The design of land-based casinos

The layout of a casino is catered for different types of customers – usually high-rollers, casual gamers and hotel guests. However, it’s always evolving to encourage more gambling while making sure everyone is having fun.

Casinos are designed to make money, and flashing slot machines and a huge amount of games are things that make players excited and ready to get involved in the action, with their wallets open.

In fact, every last detail of the design is considered, casino designers ensure that customers are attracted towards the games as they enter the casino and once they start playing it is all about keeping them there and entertained.

The fact there are no windows means the players have no sense of the amount of time they’re spending inside – and plied with alcoholic beverages, it’s easy to stay there and play their favourite games all day.

Land-based casinos and technology

That’s not to say that technology doesn’t also have a big role to play when you visit a land-based casino, even though most of it remains invisible – particularly when it comes to security.

It begins the moment you enter the casino when a camera will capture an image of your face. It will compare your features to those of people in their database who are no longer welcome in the casino for whatever reason – whether it’s for their underhand practices or antisocial behaviour in the past.

When you pick up your first pile of chips at a casino, all of them will have a little piece of circuitry called a radio frequency identification device (RFID) embedded in them.

These are just like the chips that are injected into pets to make them easy to identify if they stray and when scanned will show that the chips are genuine and not counterfeits. There have been cases in which millions of dollars worth of chips have been stolen from casinos, but because they have had these chips inside them, the casino has been able to deactivate them and make them worthless.

The playing cards dealt in casinos also have a similar form of unique identification in the form of barcodes printed on them in invisible ink. These are scanned as the dealer collects them so anyone trying to introduce their own cards into the game will be quickly exposed.

While you’re in a casino you’re also under the watchful eye of many security cameras that run programs that can automatically spot suspicious behaviour or playing patterns and alert the casino managers whenever it is spotted.

Making the online experience truly random

On the other hand, a great deal of the technology used in the online casino is there to make play possible, and enjoyable, and at the heart of slots and many table games is a piece of software called the Random Number Generator.

Using a complex algorithm, this recreates as closely as possible the random events that happen for real in a land-based casino like a roulette ball landing on a specific number or the reels in a mechanical slot creating a winning sequence.

It’s fair to say that without the RNG, the online casino would never have got off the ground.

Online goes live

We’ve already mentioned that online casinos have been making moves to closely re-create the live casino experience and this has introduced a kind of play that doesn’t need an RNG at all. That’s because it uses real live dealers in an authentic casino setting who players can compete against in real time. Even better, they can also talk to them as they play. So whether playing blackjack, baccarat or roulette you are dealt real cards or an actual wheel is spun and a clever piece of technology called a Game Control Unit converts the live play into digital information to allow online gambling. The result is an exciting gaming experience whether with cards or playing live roulette with real dealers.

Now that these advances have been made we can expect to see online casinos trying to draw ahead of their land-based rivals in terms of player experience and enjoyment with the latter taking steps to keep up. For example, many are starting to look into whether they can encourage players to play online while actually in a bricks-and-mortar casino.

Making the virtual world real

On the part of online casinos, virtual reality is an area that all the major operators are currently looking to exploit. Now that this technology has truly arrived it surely won’t be long until an even more realistic casino experience will be within their reach letting them feel like they’re playing anywhere from Vegas to Macau – all from the comfort of their living room.

But while this will undoubtedly be possible soon, there will always be people who still want that authentic casino experience. So although online play is definitely in the ascendant it would be very premature to predict the demise of the land-based version just yet.

Image source: Flickr

Are Online and Land Based Casinos Really at War?

Whether you play at online and land based casinos, you have to admit that online gambling has made the whole process of playing casino games so much easier. You can be sat at home, in your jammies, snuggled up nice and warm on the sofa, with your phone or laptop perched up on your knees, finding the best casinos to win the jackpot. Surely it doesn’t get any better than that! Though it’s been slow and painful progress, we are seeing more and more states start to license online gambling. After all, it’s a nice extra source of taxes.

Land Based Casino Vs Online Casino

But there are any self-interested parties that aren’t so quick to jump and allow punters to gamble online. They see this new technology as a threat to the status quo. On a more practical side, they see these new online casinos taking jobs away from their bricks and mortar counterparts. Their view is that there’s being a war waged between the older schools and these new young internet upstarts, between online and land based casinos.

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Why the Belief That Online Casinos Will Topple Land Based Venues?

You can probably guess which side of the fence the Chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corp stands on. Sheldon Adelson is one of the main voices of alarm over the future of traditional gambling. It’s as if he really believes that online gambling is almost inherently evil. To that end, he’s got together a coalition to fight. It’s called the Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling (CSIG). His problem is that it appears that the actual figures involved are not as dire as e would like. And in the end, you can’t help but feel his opposition is merely a smokescreen for enlarging his own land based casino empire.

One of the main partners at Macquarie Capital, Chad Benyon, has stated that internet gambling will “cannibalize $25 – $50 million dollars” in revenue from New Jersey based casinos. But his overall point was that there would be an injection of between $200 – $300 million extra coming into the state. So even subtracting the amount mentioned as cannibalization, the state still comes out happily ahead.

Differences Between Online and Land Based Casinos

You might be surprised as to just how many casinos, spread all over the US and the rest of the world, are in fact owned by the same company. And so it is with Sheldon Adelson. His empire of casinos stretches from Las Vegas to Macau. Though there is a certain saving of scale financially from having so many similar establishments, online casinos really do knock the stuffing out of bricks and mortar ventures. The first being the obvious overheads associated with a huge wage bill every month. The fact that online entities need to make no spending on maintaining premises, often with a five star hotel attached means that they can be leaner and meaner in their operation. Instead of massive utility bills, there are just some servers and an office to operate out of.

Land Based Casinos Need More Employees

The savings made by having very limited employees is a massive difference to the running cost bottom line between online and land based casinos. If we take Adelson’s The Venetian in Las Vegas as an example, it employs around 6,000 workers. That’s a monster payroll. A company that operates solely over the internet will need programmers, developers, marketers, and customer support….but the numbers are minuscule in comparison to a large casino. This lowers the total operating cost and allows the online casinos to be much more flexible during a market downturn.

Gaming Sites Offer Better RTP

Of course, in any business, profit is king. But land based casinos often keep increasing their house edges just to maintain a healthy profit. The problem is that they want more but don’t give any added benefit to the customer. Yes, we already know that they are in need of massive sums just to stay afloat. That’s why most casinos are filled to the brim with jackpot slots machines. These typically have a very low return to players, often ranging from 88% to 94%. If you go online, then you’ll find plenty of slots offering between 95% to 97% RTP. Even with the table games like blackjack, roulette, and jackpot poker, they offer more to the player.

Brick and Mortar Casinos Charge Higher Bets

This is another measure that’s in place in order to cover the higher operating costs. Well, that and the need for ever-greater profits. It affects all jackpot games. Your average casino slot machine will need a minimum bet of $0.50 to $3 in order to hit the reels. But an online casino has the minimum bets set at a tiny $0.01 to $0.5 per bet. Real casino table games normally have minimum wagers set at $10 to $25 per bet. For online table games, you’d be hard pushed to find anything more than $1.

Online Casinos Are More Convenient

Well, this is a no-brainer and probably the biggest difference between online and land based casinos. You don’t need to move your fat arse and get in the car. Just pull out your smartphone or tablet and you’re good to go. And that’s from anywhere. And it’s this ability to take the casino anywhere with you, that beats any of the competition.

Free Online Casino Games

Because their overheads are technically zero, online sites can afford to let you play for free. As such, as there are no dealers or doormen, they”re not losing any money. Also, online casinos will let you test out the games before joining. Then once you’ve registered, then you’re free to wander around the site and play many of the games for free to get the hang of them.

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The Reality: Online and Land Based Casinos Complement Each Other

This has been our thinking about this issue. It’s silly and self destructive to take a side in a war between online and land based casinos that’s non-existent. There are aspects of each that can, if used well, complement each party. Kevin Smith, CEO of Boyd Gaming, said that online gambling helped increase his company’s bottom-line income. It took nothing away from it. Smith owns and operates the Borgata and started to incorporate online sites as far back as 2014. He said that the internet business only bought profit and there have been zero detrimental effects to the core bricks and mortar business.

Boyd Gaming Looks Forwards To Growing Together

“These results also once again demonstrate online gaming’s potential to expand our business,” said Smith. “About 85 percent of our online players have not had rated play at Borgata in at least two years, showing there is little overlap with our land-based business. Online gaming is growing our database, creating a long-term opportunity to market Borgata to an entirely new group of customers.”

Tom Ballance, who’s the COO of the Borgata, said, “In January, Borgata launched a mobile gaming app for iPhones and iPads, and we are scheduled to roll out a version for Android devices shortly,” Ballance explained. “As Borgata expands into mobile gaming, we believe we will further grow our business and the overall market.”

Conclusion: The Enemy is Stagnation

Right now online gambling is supplementing the income for the traditional industry players. It’s not taking money out of the pot, but rather adding to it on a daily basis. Perhaps a real problem that starting to be noticed as it appears on the gambling horizon. And that’s simply too much competition. The fact that we have both traditional casinos and now so many online possibilities, means that the customer is spoiled for choice. Gambling is already pretty saturated in the US. That’s because states have been allowing more and more casinos to set up shop in the hope of getting more tax dollars out of them. Sure, it works. But only to so much of a degree.

With more of the big players starting to concentrate all their resources online, we will initially see the mixed earnings from both online and land based casinos rise. But then, customers start to get mighty thin on the ground. It starts costing you more to acquire a customer. And before you know it, you’re losing money. The enemy here is not whether online or offline works but rather looking towards the future. The enemy is stagnation thanks to saturation. It’s coming.

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