Online casinos have quickly become one of the most popular forms of gaming on our mobile devices – mobile gaming as a whole makes up over fifty percent of all gaming done, and as such the audience is huge. We’ve also seen a huge shift in the gaming audience, where it had previously been primarily younger teen males that had been the core gaming audience, mobile gaming has started to attract a newer audience as the primary audience is now made up of women over the age of 34 – this shift means that the audience is now made up of a core with a disposable income, allowing these games to grow much in the way they have.
With this growth, however, comes regulation change and these online casinos are no different. Throughout the lockdown period during the pandemic, most operators have been reporting a huge surge in traffic as many turn to online casinos as a nice distraction from everything else going on around them, we’ve seen changes across the world to combat this such as temporary bans on advertising or limits on deposits – but these have only been short term changes.
There have been more permanent changes too – one put in place recently had been the ban on credit card gambling and betting in an effort to prevent those at risk of accumulating debt through credit card use, this change has come alongside other changes to the Gamstop initiative – a self inclusion scheme launched in the UK to do the same of reducing the number of problem gamblers participation options to the growing number of online casinos. It has now been made mandatory for all UK based operators to register with the initiative or be at risk of losing their gaming license, but there is good news if you’re a UK based player looking to use sites that aren’t part of this scheme. A growing number of operators are starting to register outside of the UK in countries such as Malta, which still follow many of the same licensing and regulation protection, but outside the reach of initiatives such as Gamstop – Maximum Casinos list many of these different sites available and safe for use.
As mobile gaming as a whole and betting and gambling sites in particular continue to grow, it is expected that many of these preventative measures will continue to grow in scope and reach as other countries also get on board and implement their own preventative measures, the current introduction of Gamstop may serve as a good learning experience for players on how many of these initiatives may change over time and what can be done to bypass them if you’re a player that may be registered to one or if you don’t agree with the changes that are put in place – as always, however, ensure that if you are using these sites that you do gamble responsibly and safely and if you do feel like you’re a problem player to reach out in the necessary ways to stay as safe as possible.