Online Casinos Have Demographic Benefit over Land Based Casinos
Whether you play at an online casino or at a land based casino, the casino proprietors would like to know more about you. At an online casino, it’s relatively easy to learn about the players because every action a player takes is recorded and connected to that player’s account. Online casinos do this in order to avoid misunderstandings or disagreements between the casino and a player.
It’s much harder to figure out who, what, where, when, and how about players at land based casinos.
Investment Quandary
For land based casino owners, the difficulty of getting a full demographic analysis of their patrons means that they don’t really know what investments in land, décor, theme, and mood might result in more playing customers. Every investment a land based casino makes is very expensive. By definition, land based casinos are limited.
Even those casinos that have massive hotels attached to them are single level gambling emporiums. Who are the people that spend more time in the casino as opposed to at shows, restaurants, pubs, or other entertainment venues is the key to the success of the casino.
The entire casino complex may be successful even if the casino isn’t. If that were the case, management would need to know that investment in one area may be called for but investment in the casino perhaps not.
Women and Men Gamble Differently
A recent study of Canadian gamblers sheds a little light on the demographic makeup of gamblers. Women gamble more at land based casinos than at online casinos. This seems to say more about men than about women. Women are often accompanied to a land based casino by a man so the gambling behavior of the two sexes at land based casinos is roughly the same. However, men will sit to play casino games online far more often than women will.
The study also found that online gamblers tended to smoke a little more, to drink alcoholic drinks a little more, and to use drugs a bit more than land based casino patrons. These differences may have been statistically significant as a scientific study but may not have been so as a signal to casino operators as to how to proceed in developing their brand.
Brand Identification
Brand loyalty or brand recognition is far more important to a land based casino than it is to an internet casino gambler. This is extremely important to land based casino operators because as brand identification changes, a land based casino could find itself saddled with a suddenly unpopular or even politically undesirable brand. Online casinos can change their brand far faster and at a small fraction of the cost to a land based casino to do the same.
Land based casino are known in many cases by the brand. The building may have iconic architecture; the indoor décor may reflect the brand; even the employees may be dressed in costumes that reflect the brand.
Online casinos have mascots. If a mascot proves unsuccessful, it costs the casino next to nothing to change it. Online casinos rely on the “look” presented on the home page. This too can be changed quickly and at little cost. But online gamblers have little loyalty to any single casino; there are thousands of casinos online so if a gambler feels the need to switch casinos he or she can do so in the click of their mouse.
Online, it’s possible to gamble at hundreds of casinos, games, and rooms without moving. At cities like Las Vegas, you have to walk to change casinos and it might be brutally hot outside so many people will simply stay in the casino complex where their hotel room is.
Types of Games Played
At both online and land based casinos, women more often play slots, roulette, bingo, or scratch cards than men do. These are all games of chance and whether by genetic makeup or simply ego, men tend to play the more decision-based games like poker and blackjack. Men want to outsmart the game whilst women primarily simply enjoy playing the games. This may also explain the attraction of sports to men; they want to feel that they can outsmart the professionals who play and manage these games.
Craps is a very popular game at land based casinos but is the least popular game at online casinos. Women love craps at land based casinos. It is likely that the excitement that infuses the game, and roulette as well, at land casinos is the great attraction to women.
Both craps and roulette are far less exciting online but whilst craps is hardly played at all, many people, primarily men, play online roulette. Still, it is far less popular than many other online games. The roulette table and wheel at land based casinos must be stunningly beautiful. As much as graphics have improved online, the table and wheel at online roulette have little in common with their counterparts at land casinos. So, online casino operators know that they don’t need to invest a lot in roulette.
South African Land Casinos
As South Africa welcomes ever more tourists, they frequent local land based casinos more than South Africans do. It’s difficult to predict if this datum will change in the future at all. As South Africans become more affluent, they will naturally gamble more. But one of the driving forces of South African affluence is tourism. So increased casino traffic by locals may be offset well into the future by increased foreign traffic.
Gambling Responsibly
Whether one gambles at a casino, through a lottery, or at the fast-growing sports betting sector, the biggest challenge is to always gamble responsibly. In a large sense, it is easier to gamble responsibly at home. We all have many things to do when we’re at home. At land based casinos, we can eat, drink, sleep, go to a show, or gamble. In order to maintain an atmosphere of responsible gambling, land casinos need lots of bread and circuses.