Is The US Online Gambling Industry Headed For A Talent Shortage?
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Online gambling operators need more staff to cope with the growing demand for specialized knowledge. Legal online betting is expanding rapidly across the US and Canada. Online gambling industry needs to hire more people with specialized skills.
Sainsbury spoke during a Sept. 13 webinar hosted by a nonprofit trade association, iDevelopment and Economic Association (iDEA) Growth.
The US market is growing at a rapid rate. The industry needs more talent and education. It needs to transfer its knowledge to the new generation.
The US online gambling industry is new to most Americans. Operators are spending a lot on brand awareness campaigns to educate bettors. Outside of Nevada, US sportsbooks have been legal since May 2018. Many states have only gone about legalizing online casinos after or alongside sports betting. Sainsbury founded her company in 2011.
There are certain rules that apply to legal gambling sites. They have to adhere to the legal age, perform know-your-customer checks and comply with anti-money laundering laws. Online gambling operators need to only serve individuals located within the jurisdictions where regulators approved their apps. New personnel hired by the operators should be aware of the restrictions.
Daniel Hartman, director of the Colorado Division of Gaming, saw a stationary online sports betting advertisement in a college stadium. In Colorado, betting is illegal for anyone under 21. Operators will have to update tech and communicate with vendors and third parties to ensure they’re not reaching out to or serving at-risk and problem gamblers.
Regulators are more set up to work with operators than with advertisers. Regulators need access to the self-excluded list. Online gambling operators need to take a holistic view of themselves and their industry. They need not to use national ads that lump the RG language together and make them look like prescription commercials. They also need a better understanding of the difference between legal and illegal online gambling apps.
If operators wait for state oversight, they won't be happy with it.
Connecticut plans to launch online sports betting and online casino on Oct. 7. Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia already offer legal online casinos. Online sports gambling is legal in 21 states and DC. Canada legalized single-event sports betting on Aug. 27. The most popular first bet for PlayNowSports was a boxing match between YouTuber Jake Paul and mixed martial artist Tyron Woodley.
BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel have nearly 5,000 employees. The figures don't include third parties, like GeoComply, which has 270 employees listed on LinkedIn. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 117,100 gambling services workers as of 2020.
The BLS numbers don't separate out online gambling employees.
BLS reports in July 2021 that online gambling personnel work fewer hours and produce more than the average gambling industry employee.
Online gambling requires far fewer labor hours than traditional casino operations. The pandemic’s impact and the rise in online activity caused labor productivity to make a big jump, rising 16.2 percent.
