US Online Gambling Sites Have Competition

Throughout the better part of 2020 and into this year, U.S. online casino and sportsbook operators have had a stranglehold on the U.S. gambling industry. Clearly, this came to be because of the brick and mortar lockdowns that have been occurring due to the COVID19 pandemic. Somewhere in the back of the minds of gambling industry experts has been a question about how online operators would operate with a little competition. It would appear the answer to that question will be forthcoming sooner rather than later.

What is not surprising to anyone is the competition is setting up between retail and online operators. If the current fall in the NASDAQ stock prices of companies like Penn National Gaming, Golden Nugget Online Gaming (GNOG) DraftKings, and Rush Street Interactive (RSI) is indicative of what is could take place within the industry, investors are betting on retail casinos to capture a bit of the old glory.

Over the last 10 months or so, states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Nevada have been recording record month-over-month gambling handle and revenue from both casino and sportsbook operations. In fact, U.S. online bookmakers like William Hill, BetMGM, DraftKings, and FanDuel have been crushing the sports gambling handle numbers from prior to the pandemic.

Yes, the numbers were rising because online gambling has been the only game in town for adults. With household and business lockdowns, adults needed something that would provide them with entertainment value. They have been finding that entertainment value by gambling online.

Brick and Mortar Casinos Are Coming Back to Life

Within the last couple of months, the high profile states that support retail casinos have started the reopening process. Casinos in Nevada are close to operating a full capacity. According to Gov. Steve Sisolak (D), the gambling industry is expecting major retail casinos to be operating at 100% capacity by June 1, 2021. That coincides with reports that headline properties like Caesars Palace, Golden Nugget, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, and MGM Resorts have all announced reopening dates that fall between June 1 and July 1.

What remains to be seen is how this will impact business for online operators. Considering the pent-up demand for vacation time and entertainment, it is reasonable to expect a dramatic shift in gambling revenue over the next few months between retail and online operations. That shift figures to heavily favor the retail casino and sportsbook operators.

If that is true, it will be early fall before experts will be able to get a realistic idea of how popular online gambling is going to be in America.

Of course, Nevada's Governor is keeping the state's mask mandate in place for the time being. Whether or not that will impact traffic coming to Nevada casinos remains to be seen.

In the coming months, gambling industry eyes will also be on the rest of the states that have both retail and online gambling options. Experts will be looking to see how rooted online gambling has become in American culture over the last 12 months or so.