Many of us have been affected in one way or another from COVID-19, the coronavirus that has spread all over the world. People have died, businesses have had to shut down and people can’t and/or won’t get out of their own homes. And, even though it’s mostly entertainment, sports and gambling have had big issues too. We can read in this article from The Gamehaus how betting has lost a big chunk of revenue due to COVID-19. Most sport around the world has been shut down. And, then there is nothing left to bet on basically.
Now, many countries have also shut down online casinos due to the risk of too much gambling while people are staying at home. This will surely be one of the greatest events during 2020 in the gambling industry and it’s far from over yet.
How online casino markets have reacted
Some countries have decided to shut down online gambling completely. Latvia is one that has taken it this far. The few licensed casinos in this country will now lose all their revenue during the corona outbreak. This affects big companies with many employees, which is not good for the economy obviously. Spain, an even bigger country, has made the same arrangement. In Sweden, maximum deposit rules have been set and they are also discussing shutting down the whole market.
So, what can we say about this? We understand, of course, the risk of an increase in gambling during these sad times. However, this is entertainment that many people like. Being trapped indoors and also deprived of things to do is quite harsh from the governments. Also, players already having gambling issues won’t stop. There are always ways to gamble anyway, through VPN tunnels etcetera. The big loss in the countries economies due to this is no good for anyone. More people lose their jobs and a lot of tax money won’t get in. We believe there are worse things than gambling throughout these dark times and the backlash of it will not be good. Let’s hope, for many reasons, that the coronavirus will disappear really soon and we can all go back to the way things once were.