How Many Is Too Many?
Added: Oct. 7, 2013
Really, have you stopped to ask yourself that question lately about all of those online casinos that seem to keep popping up out of nowhere?
First, start with the size of this industry. Exact numbers are not available because some online casinos aren’t operating legally, so there is no clear way to get a handle on them. Nevertheless, just the legal online casinos are conservatively estimated to be an 11 Billion dollar business.
How many online casinos does it take to get to 11 Billion dollars? Actually, the answer may surprise you. There are around 2,000 or so legitimate online casinos that can be identified. Does that number sound a bit small to you? If so, consider that in the 10 years that online gambling has been around, there has been some “churn” in the online casino industry. That is, there has been a pattern of smaller independent online casinos either going out of business or being acquired by larger competitors.
All that aside, we are back to the original question. How many online casinos does the world really need? Before you answer, keep in mind that that online gambling is still an industry in its infancy. Also, it is important to remember that some locations require the presence of a land based casino to own and operate an online casino while others do not. Some locations restrict access to their online casinos to citizens of the native country and then impose a tax or fee on those same players.
As you can see, there are quite a few factors that may be contributing to such a large number of online casinos. At the same time, you may start to see this number get smaller and smaller over time. As the big boys get into the game, you know, like the granddaddys of all things related to gambling like the big time operators from Las Vegas things may in fact shift. You may start to see a wave of acquisitions that at some point force the smaller operators to either be absorbed or to go out of business. Perhaps it will be like the early days of the automobile. At one time, there were hundreds of automobile manufacturers scattered all over. Now, there are less than 100 automobile manufacturers worldwide. Perhaps the same thing is about to happen with online gambling and online casinos.