Casinos: Is It Game Over for Brick and Mortar Casinos?
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Is It Game Over for Brick and Mortar Casinos?
Brick-and-mortar casinos have been forced to close around the world – can they ever reopen? The coronavirus crisis has had a massive impact on many different industries, but the casino sector has been hit harder than most by the pandemic.
With casinos across the United States shutting their doors due to lockdown conditions, the very future of the industry has been thrust into doubt. Indeed, Las Vegas is virtually a ghost town right now and it is thought that many thousands of casino-related jobs in Nevada have been put at risk of being lost for good due to the shutdown.
There is government support available to help casino companies stay afloat during the pandemic. However, the longer the crisis continues, the harder it will be for them to survive.
Is this the end of the road for brick-and-mortar casinos?
The grandeur of these casinos may be a figment of our imagination soon
Lockdown conditions sending casino customers online
Although President Trump has left no doubts that he is in favor of starting to ease lockdown conditions across America, it seems likely they will continue for some weeks to come.
This means casino users have been forced to go online to play their favorite games such as roulette and blackjack. Online casinos have seen a spike in their usage as a result, with these sites giving people the chance to place a bet from the comfort of their own homes.
With the sports betting industry also decimated due to the lack of live-action, online casinos are catering to a wider audience than ever before. And it seems likely that people will continue to enjoy the flexibility offered by online casinos even if their land-based equivalents are to be given the green light to open their doors once more.
After all, online casinos offer more value as there are a lot of extra bonuses and promotions available to players, especially at new ones. Users can take advantage of free spins and deals such as no deposit bonuses and deposit match bonuses when they sign up to play at a new online casino.
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When will brick-and-mortar casinos be able to open again?
In Vegas, often referred to as one of the top gambling destinations in the world, there is increasing pressure for online casinos to be allowed to open their doors again. The outspoken Las Vegas city mayor Carolyn Goodman has suggested that businesses such as brick-and-mortar casinos should be told they can reopen. If they then start to spread the virus, Goodman says they would be shut down.
With Vegas facing a $150 million deficit over the next 18 months, it is understandable why there appears to be increasing desperation to get the casino industry up and running again. But it looks to be delusional to think casinos in Vegas and other American cities will be able to start operating as though things are back to normal any time soon.
The death toll for the coronavirus is already higher in the US than in any other country in the world, with the number of confirmed cases of the disease in America now approaching a million.
Acting chief executive and president of MGM Resorts International Bill Horn buckle said this week that casinos will be “operating differently” when they are permitted to open again. Horn buckle said it would be a “completely uncharted path” for casinos but intimated floor layouts could be amended to allow customers to practice social distancing while gambling.
Casinos would surely have to implement more rigorous cleaning practices for cards and chips and it is difficult to see how table games would work if customers had to remain a set distance apart. Typically, casinos have to undergo cleaning just once a day to reduce upheaval for customers. However, there would have to be major changes to keep people safe.
Online casinos offer a better alternative
With no visit to a casino surely worth risking contracting a deadly illness like COVID-19, it seems safe to say online casinos are going to keep growing in popularity during this time.
WSOP, an online poker operator based in Nevada, has reported a large rise in its customer numbers since the start of the crisis. Seth Polasky, the company’s vice president of communications, said customer numbers were 45 percent up on their usual annual peak.
Online operators have responded to the coronavirus by making even more of an effort to attract people to their sites. Poker Stars, which is one of the Internet’s top online poker sites, had a prize pool of over $18 million for a tournament that was played at the end of March.
However, online poker is still only legal in a few states across America despite the easing of gambling rules that have been taking place since the Supreme Court’s key ruling on the practice. Virginia is set to join the list by legalizing casinos and sports betting soon, however.
Table games such as roulette and blackjack are very easy to find online, though, while casinos that operate through the Internet tend to have a choice of hundreds of different slot games. It is hard to see how casino customers are going to give up the many advantages of playing online, even if brick-and-mortar casinos can reopen this year – which remains far from guaranteed.
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