Top 21 Casino Industry Trends For 2015

By Casinomeister, Last updated Dec 12, 2014

Spectrum Gaming Group release 11th Annual Report

New Jersey-based research firm Spectrum Gaming Group has released its annual report on the 21 most important global gaming trends for 2015.

The top trends, which are listed according to prominence, comprise:

1. States weighing legalization, expansion or current performance of casinos will have to deal with the impacts of market saturation within and beyond their borders. The national pie will grow slowly, but many markets will continue to be flat or declining.

2. Asia will continue to be the focal point in global gaming, as governments and developers seek to tap the lucrative Asian market.

3. Las Vegas will continue to show strength, as it benefits from increasing international visitation, non-gaming major attractions, and from the anticipation under-development major projects.

4. Atlantic City will move toward stability with fewer casino operators and a renewed focus on non-gaming resort development, assisted by state aid.

5. Macau will continue to be challenged in the near term due to the Chinese crackdown on corruption, and in the longer term due to increased competition in Southeast Asia.

6. Continued expansion efforts in the Northeast U.S., with movement closer to population centers that will result in a market share shift rather than new growth.

7. Flat and declining growth in regional markets will continue to be a driver of M&A activity, spurred also by activist investors.

8. U.S. and international law enforcement agencies will continue to enhance compliance and enforcement efforts regarding money laundering in financial institutions, casinos in particular.

9. Tribal gaming will continue to expand, innovate, and increasingly compete on an equal footing with commercial casinos while continuing to push the envelope with off-reservation casinos and Internet wagering.

10. The convergence of gaming will continue, with casinos, lotteries, i-gaming, social games, pari-mutuel, and bingo offering products that cross into the others' traditional space.

11. As Indiana, Delaware and New Jersey are doing, existing states will seek strategic regulatory and economic solutions that enable their gaming industries to stem profit declines and grow gaming revenue.

12. As the number of casinos continues to rise across the country, and new casino-revenue sources from existing markets become scarce, there will be a continued push by casino operators to broaden their appeal and change their business models to become less gaming-centric.

13. Sports and gaming will continue to converge with the growth in popularity of daily fantasy sports and the potential legalization of sports betting.

14. The growth of Internet gambling in the United States will continue to tread water as the performances in Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey continue to be underwhelming. However, more states will move to approve Internet lotto sales and develop new types of online and mobile games in 2015.

15. More gaming companies will split into REITs and operating companies.

16. Asian junket promoters will continue diversifying to new jurisdictions and into different areas of business operation.

17. U.S. casino operators will continue to seek deregulation and regulatory reforms and embrace new technologies in continual efforts to trim human resources and payroll budgets.

18. The pressure will increase in Europe for more integrated resorts, particularly in regions that need boosts in tourism and employment.

19. More gaming operators and suppliers will acquire social gaming companies and capabilities as they seek to engage millennials as the future generation of gamblers. At the same time, game developers and gaming operators will accelerate efforts to turn social games into gambling games.

20. More states, seeking to recover or enhance gambling receipts, will follow the lead of Illinois by considering retail gaming, which is the installation of a limited number of electronic gaming devices in liquor-licensed establishments.

21. More states will consider legalizing Instant Racing — i.e., wagering on historical racing through slot-like machines — as alternative to slots at racetracks.

Online Casino News Courtesy of Infopowa

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