COVID-19 caused a lot of issues for casinos around the world. Because Covid-19 closed a lot of brick and mortar casinos it meant that there were lots of players who suddenly had nowhere to play in the real world. This combined with some other factors meant that online casinos saw an influx of players and unprecedented demand.
We have analysed just how the different aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic impacted on both online and brick and mortar casinos.
Brick and Mortar Casinos Close
This was the first real issue that was thrown up by the onset of Covid-19. Because indoor venues were closed down it meant that people were unable to visit the different sites. As such, it meant that a lot of people didn’t have anywhere to go when they wanted to play at a casino. On top of this there were also lots of workers who were previously employed by casinos who now were at home with nothing to do.
Because there were no brick and mortar casinos to visit, it meant that people who wanted to play at a casino had no other choice apart from online casinos. It meant that this caused a small spike in the amount of business that online casinos had coming their way.
Other Issues Increased Online Business
While the closure of brick and mortar added a small spike to business, it wasn’t the only thing to impact the business that online casinos brought in. There were also a lot of people who were now at home. A lot of jobs continued to pay employees even when they couldn’t come in to work. It meant that people had a lot more disposable income as they weren’t commuting to work anymore and there were also no shops open to spend their money.
This caused a much more significant spike in the business for online casinos. In fact, during the height of the pandemic there were some of the biggest numbers that the online casino industry had ever seen. This was mainly due to more people than ever before having the time and disposable income to play at online casinos all at the same time.
While this increase in revenue was undoubtedly a positive for the industry, it also meant that online casinos had to find a way to deal with this increased level of business.
Online Casino Issues
The main issue that the sites had to deal with was an increased requirements for customer support. Because there were far more players than had been using the sites in the past it meant that there were also far more issues to deal with. There were two main ways that the sites dealt with this problem.
The first way was by employing more people in the customer support department. This meant that online casinos had more employees than they had had in the past and the new customers had someone to deal with any issues that they might come across.
The second way was by employing AI chat bots to carry out initial customer service. These chat bots cost a lot less than employing new service workers, but they did a good job of dealing with simple problems that didn’t necessarily need a customer service worker to resolve. The added bonus that came along with the chat bots was that they could remain in place afterwards as well to streamline the overall customer service of the site.
Another issue that cropped up was bandwidth. While online casinos tend to have a lot of bandwidth in place, there is also a finite amount of web traffic that they can deal with. The new influx of players meant that the sites had to go through negotiations for more bandwidth. If they didn’t do this then players would be unable to use the site and they would then move onto another site.
Fortunately, most web providers will offer the ability to move onto a higher data plan on a temporary basis. So, while it would increase costs for a short while it could be moved back down to a less expensive data plan if business slowed down in the future.
Long Term Changes
According to onlinecasinosrealmoney.co.nz: When it comes to long term issues, things didn’t change on a wholesale basis for online casinos. Once people started going back to work and brick and mortar casinos were open again it meant that online casino business started to fall back to previous levels. For sites that had employed new customer service workers it meant that they were either retained if the budget could afford them or they were laid off. Chatbots tended to remain in place as they were much cheaper to maintain.
The same happened with increased bandwidth costs. Because sites were able to make the shift to higher data plans on a temporary basis it meant that they didn’t need to keep covering those costs in the long term. Once customer numbers dropped back down to the previous level it meant that the bandwidth could be dropped back down.
It allowed the online casino industry to make a quick shift to a higher cost model once revenue increased. However, it also offered the ability to drop back down to lower costs once revenue reverted back to its original position. This ability to scale means that if there is ever a wholesale drop in casino revenue the industry will be able to scale back costs relatively easily.
Disclaimer: Gambling involves an element of financial risk and maybe addictive. Please play responsibly and at your own risk. Subject to applicable laws.