The Impact of the Pandemic on Land Based Casinos

Although 2020 had been an extremely difficult and turbulent year for many of us, things certainly look to be on the path back to normal as strong vaccination efforts are paying off for many countries, with others still battling some outbursts of the virus. One of the most successful things to come out of the past year however had been within the online space, particularly within gaming as online casinos have been able to thrive and see a huge surge of new players with many of the biggest services showing record numbers – but what kind of impact has this same period of time had on land-based casinos?

Long term closures have hurt in the short term – It’s undeniable that the forced closures toward the start and middle of last year certainly had a huge, short term impact, no visitors through the doors and a bleak outlook moving forward. There had been calls from many casino owners hoping for funding to be secured in order to keep things going, whilst there had been opportunities to re-open with certain measures in place, none were able to re-open in a larger way until recently which had certainly led to short term losses.

A potential uncertainty moving forward – For many, there’s also the challenge of moving forward with two key things in mind – the first has been with the success of online services potentially taking the wind out of the sales of land-based options, as many users may now be focussed on playing online only options. Similarly, those who still remain less than certain about returning to large crowds and busy rooms may be put off of the idea of getting back to a land-based casino until there’s more certainty around safety and security of all who visit the locations.

There is a silver lining, however… – It’s not all doom and gloom for offline services however as there is something for many to look forward to, something that has been suggested much like other industries that have struggled throughout, the sense of returning to normal with some familiarity. Those who haven’t been able to visit a casino throughout the past year may be missing a more lively experience that’s more tactile that only the offline experience can provide and may be something that hurries along the recovery process as floors start to fill with the patrons that have been missing the experience the most.

As a whole, bookings for locations like Vegas have stared very high despite the difficulty showing that although the shorter term problems faced over the last year still have room to overcome, there is something for both the owners and operators and the punters to look forward to in the near future as recovery seems inevitable – but to what degree of recovery is yet to be seen.