Millennials are the biggest generation in the human history whose purchasing power has already reached 200b in the US alone. However, unfortunately for the land-based casino industry, traditional gambling houses have little appeal to young people these days. Some experts say that if casino operators will not manage to attract millennials to their gambling floor, the whole sector faces a sharp decline in the decades to come. On the other hand, online gambling has a wide appeal among young people which can have serious consequences in the future.

Brick-and-Mortar Casinos Struggle to Attract Millennials

Sociological surveys show that millennials spend as little as 8.5% of their budget for gambling whereas among non-millennials this number is 23.5%. It is an obvious fact that millennials significantly differ from previous generations. There are several factors that have made this difference more prominent:

• From their very childhood millennials had access to computers, smartphones, social media, and internet. This has significantly influenced how they interact with other people and build up their social life.
• Unlike Baby-Boomers and Generation-X, millennials have grown up in times of economic depression when it was not that easy to find a decent job.

As a result, there are some apparent reasons why millennials do not like to visit land-based casinos and instead they are noticed more often simply using review sites like best casinos at SlotsUp to find reliable and trustworthy casino vendors. It saves them lots of time and trouble, considering the never stopping rhythm of life they are having.

• Traditional gambling houses look too boring for them. When millennials come to a terrestrial casino they tend to spend more money on drinks and food than on gambling itself. Today young people like to have more social interactions and spending time alone at a slot machine is looked upon as depressive.
• While having an experience of living on a tight budget, millennials are less prone to risk their money in traditional gambling. For them, it is obvious that “the house always wins”. Instead, it is more interesting for millennials to play the games where some skills are involved and not just sheer luck.

Of course, terrestrial casino operators are not sitting still and already starting to use different strategies to lure young people to their gambling tables and slot machines:

1. Mobile-on-premises games are being introduced so that one can make bets at any place of the casino while not losing contact with one’s friends.
2. Digitized gambling in land-based casinos will allow collecting tons of data about the individual behavior of their visitors. Consequently, in the future, it will be possible to offer personalized services to players.
3. Casino spaces are being redesigned so as to look more attractive to millennials.
4. Skill-based slot machines are being manufactured where, for example, one has to match fruits to make a smoothie or find some hidden words while the amount of the money to be won is determined randomly.
5. Benches are being installed together with slot machines so that couples can jointly have fun while playing some skill-based casino games.

As you can see there are quite a lot of efforts being made by the land-based casino industry to attract young people. Only time will show whether they will succeed. In the same time, some experts point out to the fact that in 1970-ties there also were gloomy predictions about how low is the interest among hippies towards gambling. However, everything has changed when the representatives of this generation have reached their 40s and 50s with many of them becoming problem gamblers in the end. The story can repeat itself. However, in the case of millennials chances are high that these will be online betting websites and internet casinos where they will be prone to spend all their money in one gambling session.

Online Gambling To Pose A Real Problem For Youth

Millennials prefer to play the games of chance on the internet without having to visit any gloomy casino houses. In fact, many of them actively support lifting the ban on web casinos in the US. A recent survey which was commissioned by the American Gaming Association shows that the age of 44% of gamblers who make sports bets is less than 35. As we have already mentioned, millennials like the games where there is some skill engaged instead of mere luck. Sport perfectly falls into this category. Online sports betting is becoming a big problem for young people in the UK. Numbers speak for themselves. During the 2018 FIFA World Cup, there was £2.5bn worth of bets made which is several times more than during the previous global football contest. In the US the Supreme Court has allowed the states to legalize online sports gambling on their own in 2018. As a result, it is expected that the popularity of this type of gambling will skyrocket as well as the percentage of problem bettors among young smartphone users. Besides that, it is not a secret that millennials are among the most eager investors into cryptocurrencies. Cryptos are a perfect match for online gambling since they allow to make instant transactions without having to disclose one’s identity. As a result, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (2006) which prohibits American banks to process gambling money transfers becomes useless. As a consequence, there are many bitcoin casino sites where one can play anywhere in the US despite the web gambling ban. The problem with online gambling is that it constantly tempts one to try out his luck with the casino websites being available 24/7 availability. Of course, you can exclude yourself from gambling at a particular web casino but it will take you only a few minutes to sign up at just another offshore based website. To sum up, although millennials do not seem to be much addicted to gambling nowadays in the future they will have to face the challenges that online gambling brings with itself.