The EGBA Says Online Gambling Will Decrease, Contrary to Popular Opinion

24.04.2020, 19:21

On April 15, the European Gaming & Betting Association (EGBA) released a blog post that highlighted the necessity of safe gambling for the duration of the current pandemic. In this article, we will go through each section of the post and bring attention to the most important parts. 

The post started off by acknowledging that the improvement of responsible gambling should be focused on every year, regardless of any public health crises. However, it is currently more important than ever for the EGBA to protect vulnerable members of the European population. This is because a huge amount of people have been stuck at home throughout the coronavirus’ duration. Some of these people are turning to gambling, but they don’t know how to manage their money in a safe manner. A myriad of tools is available that players could utilize to help them gamble safely, but it is also up to online casinos to make sure that they are operating in a socially responsible way. Companies should make sure that gambling tools are accessible to users and located in a visible section of their website. The tools must also be intuitive to users and come with a tutorial if necessary. 

Self-exclusion is one example of a gambling tool that players can use to act more responsibly. It lets players ban themselves from visiting a certain gambling website. This prohibition can last permanently or can be set for a specific duration of time. All EGBA members were already required to have self-exclusion tools available on their website, but they should take this opportunity to ensure that the process is visible and as easy to use as possible. 

Unfortunately, illegal gambling websites often do not utilize self-exclusion tools, so national gambling regulators should increase their efforts to take down these sites. 

Licensed advertising can help customers understand which companies follow the EGBA’s regulatory procedures. That way, players will not accidentally visit a black-market gambling website in which their rights are not protected.

The release continued on to say the coronavirus will cause online gambling activity to decrease, which is the opposite of what some media outlets have been saying. The EGBA noted that sports betting makes up almost 50% of European gambling activity. The cancellation and postponement of major sports matches will cause sports betting activity to plummet. Some sports bettors may switch to other forms of gambling, such as online slots and table games, but others will stop betting altogether. 

Belgium’s government released data in early April that showed traffic to legal gambling sites has lowered by nearly 40% since the onset of COVID-19. Most of the decline is attributed to the lack of sports betting activity. 

H2 Gambling Capital has predicted a 12.5% drop in international gambling revenue over 2020. H2 predicted that online gambling will experience a 3% increase proportionally in the gambling industry. However, there will actually be a decline in online gambling revenue when you look at the overall market total rather than percentages.

The post’s author, Maarten Haijer, closed the release by stating that these studies have disproved the popular notion that online gambling will experience drastic increases.