The last few months have been great for the online casino sector because, since March, many land casinos from around the world were forced to temporarily close because of the pandemic. The future of some closed casinos is even unknown because it may be hard for them to recover from what the pandemic did to their businesses.

Before the outbreak, land casinos are already challenged by online casino operators. There’s just really a bigger market for online casinos. There are around 4 billion smartphone users worldwide and smartphones these days are so powerful that anyone can play a live casino game with such a small device.

Mobile casinos and betting are now strong sectors of the gambling industry. For example, the state of New Jersey’s mobile betting handle makes up about 80 to 90 percent of the overall sports betting handle of the state.

We can also take a look at how sports betting and casino gaming is doing in New York. New York already has a law that legalizes sports betting in the state. However, only land-based casinos were given the license to operate.

One may think that legalizing in-person betting in the state could help increase the betting revenues in New York, but this isn’t the case. Most New Yorkers are still riding the train to New Jersey to place their bets on online casinos and bookies where it’s legal to do so online. Those are great pieces of evidence that show how much people would rather gamble online nowadays.

Now, before the pandemic, casinos located in New Jersey and Nevada were pretty much unbothered about the rise of mobile or online gaming. After all, these states are known as the hottest spots to gamble and people from around the world do travel to these places for gambling purposes.

However, since the pandemic, mobile or online casinos have completely dominated the gambling scene. Even if Las Vegas has already allowed casinos to reopen without mandatory facemasks and visitor restrictions, likely, restrictions will soon be implemented. The worst case is that another temporary closure will be announced by the state. Currently, Las Vegas is experiencing a spike in COVID 19 cases.

The surge of the COVID cases in Las Vegas appears to be the result of the re-opening of many casinos. An increase in the number of infected people came as early as the first two weeks since the re-opening of leisure places. Sadly, Nevada had the highest virus transmission rate in the United States since June 24.

Station Casinos in Nevada remains uncertain about the reopening of their four casino resorts in Southern Nevada. Right now, if you ask players, many of them would probably say that they would rather stay at home than to be exposed to the virus if they visit public places like land casinos.

However, there is still a chance that land casinos would thrive during this pandemic. This is if these businesses implement safety measures like requiring customers to wear facemasks, frequent sanitation, and limiting the number of people allowed at the casino floor. Well, even if all these happen, it is still likely that online gaming will dominate the scene.

The pandemic plays a big role when it comes to determining the fate of land casinos at the moment. Without a vaccine for the COVID-19, land casinos around the world will likely continue to struggle because many governments see this type of business as unnecessary.

However, once the pandemic starts to be under control and once a safe and effective vaccine has already been released to the public, things could go back to normal in states like Nevada and New Jersey. It may take a while before land casinos get back on track because by then, people are probably already used to online gambling.

Sure, the problem that virus has given land casinos would slowly go away, but online casino gaming will remain a threat to land casinos moving forward. There are just many great reasons why people would rather play casino games online.

The fact that you can play any casino game online anywhere and any time makes this the more convenient option to play. Online casinos are also known for the generous bonuses that they are giving away, Sure, land casinos do offer promos and bonuses to their customers, but some of the best deals are only available online.

Overall, if the pandemic won’t kill land casinos, then there is still a possibility that mobile or online casinos will in the future. This may not be the case soon as this could take time to happen, but right now, we can say that there is a strong chance.