The Covid-19 pandemic almost spelled doom for land-based casino and sportsbook establishments while at the same time propelling online gambling services to unprecedented prosperity. The reasons for this were obvious, gambling enthusiasts (like everyone else) were confined to their homes and land-based casinos were shut. In order to get their gaming fix, they took to online casinos.
Now, at the beginning of 2022, many experts predict that we are in the end game of the pandemic with the Omicron variant. You may think that the reign of the online casinos will end with the pandemic, but you would be mistaken. The reasons why players will continue playing with online casinos are not as obvious as the reasons why they started playing at online casinos in the first place when the pandemic began. Here’s why New Zealanders will stick to online casinos long after the pandemic is done and dusted.
Easing Covid Restrictions not on the Horizon for New Zealand
New Zealand’s tourism sector has been dealt yet another blow in the form of news that the Covid-19 restrictions in the country are here to stay for the foreseeable future. In the early days of the pandemic when other countries struggled, New Zealand was touted for its exceptional handling of the situation. Unfortunately, things have gone a bit south since. According tonumbers published by the John Hopkins’ Center for Systems Science and Engineering, the daily average cases in NZ has spiked from just three a day to nearly two hundred a day. In light of this surge, authorities have made no sign of easing border and travel restrictions. Only fully vaccinated NZ nationals can enter the country.
Needless to say, such restrictions are not conducive to land based online casino businesses such as SkyCity. SkyCity is heavily reliant on tourists that frequent the casino for gambling and have now been left to fend for themselves. Data shows that over 40% of the company’s revenue comes from Chinese players, who are now far and few in-between. Since the onslaught of the pandemic, SkyCity’s numbers have only gone one way – downhill. Even now that they are able to open their doors to public, it is not like it once was. They still have to abide by various Covid restrictions which hampers operations and business significantly on a day-to-day basis. The casino now does business in compliance with the Covid-19 traffic light system imposed by authorities.
SkyCity isn’t the only casino facing Covid-induced woes; the stories at other land-based casinos follow similar narratives too. It seems New Zealand casinos are under constant pressure not only by regulators but also their online counterparts who can operate much more freely while being able to offer better value proposition for players through NZ no deposit bonuses.
Online Casinos Offer a Wide Range of Benefits and Conveniences
Many millions of people around the world have played at online casinos since before the Covid-19 pandemic. However, a lot of people got their first online casino gaming experience as a result of the pandemic and being forced to stay home. These players who have now gotten a taste for online casinos will quickly realize its many benefits when compared with land-based casinos. There are many reasons why players will continue to play at online casinos even once the Covid-19 pandemic is a thing of the past. Here are a few ways in which online casinos are better than their land-based counterparts.
- Play from anywhere and at any time:It does not matter what time of the day or night it is. It does not matter if you’re on the toilet seat or in front of your computer or you’re on the bus on your way to work. You can use either your smartphone, a tablet or your laptop to access your favorite online casino and play games whenever you wish to. Online casinos are operational 24/7 and you can play from the comfort of your own home.
- Games at your fingertips:Land based casinos have hundreds, if not thousands of casino games. However, if you wish to play many different games, it entails a lot of walking around and waiting for tables and games to free up. At online casinos, there are no queues or wait times, you can launch any game within seconds with just a single click of the mouse. Most online casinos are home to thousands of games across categories like slots, progressive jackpots, live dealer table games, video poker, etc.
- Claim lots of bonuses: One of the biggest perks to playing at online casinos are the lucrative bonuses. Land-based casinos dosometimes extend a few offers to their patrons, but these are hardly comparable to the online casino bonuses available to NZ players. Some online casinos even reward new players simply for signing up, no deposit required. Welcome bonuses, reload bonuses, cashbacks, free spins, VIP bonuses, personalized birthday bonuses and tons more are usually staple offerings at high-quality online casinos.
After having experienced world-class online casino gaming, players usually only go back to land-based casinos as a novelty experience or for the social aspect of it. One thing is for sure – online casinos are here to stay, pandemic or not.