Online Casino

Once upon a time, the flashing lights, noisy sounds and easy way of gambling that characterised slots machines were the magnetic attraction of every casino whether it lived along the strip in Las Vegas, in the huge complexes of Atlantic City or the high rolling streets of Monte Carlo. It cannot be denied that the allure of banks upon banks of slot machines have kept customers streaming into every casino. They were the bread and butter of every land based casino wherever they were in the world.

Then along came Internet gambling and a new breed of slot games that dared to challenge their real world counterparts for their massive income generating crown. It has taken several years, but it now seems they have won that challenge. So why have online slots become even more popular than the real machines in the land based casinos? Why are they drawing ever more gamblers away from the brick and mortar establishments and into their cyberspace alter egos?

A recent marketing conference held in Las Vegas which was looking at developing customers was concerned with exactly this problem. Their recommendation was that Las Vegas casinos should lower their hold on slot machines from seven percent of all the money that is played to six percent. This, they concluded will attract more players who will want to play for longer. But it doesn't come anywhere close to the incredibly low holds that can be found at many online slots in Internet casinos that can run to as low as one percent.

The average land based slots player simply doesn't comprehend the difference between six and seven percent. While they may play for longer and see slightly more winning lines appear, they will only come back again if they don't get the chance to make any comparisons with online slots. If that happened, they would notice the difference. Online slots simply provide for more winning games when compared directly with their land based equivalents. That, in itself is a pretty big draw for the average player, who naturally wants to win as often as they possibly can for a set bankroll.
 
Casinos along the Las Vegas Strip have for years operated with the concept of being close to capacity. Their strategy has always been to relieve each player of as much money as possible in the shortest possible time with another player waiting behind to take their place when they're cleaned out. That strategy worked fine for many years. However, with the economic recession starting to bite, casinos are being forced to make changes in order to keep the patrons they already have while trying to attract new ones. If they don't make their establishments even more entertaining for their customers, or make the effort to lower their odds against them, they face dwindling numbers and correspondingly dwindling revenue.

The online casinos on the other hand seem to have the market cornered and are not unduly bothered by the recession. They attract new players every day for these several reasons:

1. They have far lower odds against their customers

2. They have practically no overheads with regards to premises

3. They have no hefty taxes to pay

4. There are no staffing costs to meet

5. Their customers don't even need to leave home to play.

What's more, because they are not constrained by the physical limitations of brick and mortar premises, they can offer a much wider range of games that would not be cost effective for land casinos to make room for. These include penny slots, $1 blackjack, $1 bingo and a whole host of unusual arcade and Asian games.

These games all make money. They just don't make enough money for land based casinos to warrant the expense of installing them. The worst part for land casinos is that even if they did install things like penny slots, those games would attract players that could otherwise be spending much larger sums of money on regular and jackpot slots.

This is not a problem for online casinos. They can happily supply penny slots to a thousand customers who are not taking up any space and can sit there playing a penny a go for weeks on end. The online casinos still get their money! It's as if they have the slots market all neatly gift wrapped and tied up in a white ribbon and bow!

It is for these reasons that the online casinos are sweeping the floor with land based casinos despite US laws trying to stop their citizens from playing. They find a way and the online casinos keep making money. Meanwhile, the rest of the world makes up any shortfall because customers wanting to play online slots can use an online casino from wherever they are in the world. They don't have to drive to Las Vegas, fly to Macau, sail to Monte Carlo or go anywhere other than from one room in their house to another in order to play them at their convenience.