The State of Online Gambling in the United States and its Impact on the Stock Market
Online gambling is a new player in the United States betting scene. For many years, gamblers could only rely on casinos to get their fix, even as people in other countries could place bets online. This is slowly changing, and online gambling is growing steadily.
Online sports betting sites, poker matches, and casinos can change the gambling scene in the United States and the stock market.
The Legality of Online Gambling
For many years, all forms of sports betting and online gambling were illegal. In 2018, the Supreme Court overturned a decades-long ban on sports betting, one of the primary sources of online gambling internationally. Another act, the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act, placed limits on online gambling, but its rule is not as hard as it used to be.
The situation for online gambling varies from state to state. Each state has the right to decide its gambling laws, so legalization must happen at the state level. There are also limits on interstate gambling.
The tide is turning in favor of online gambling. Nearly a dozen states, from Nevada to West Virginia, have legalized online gambling, and others such as Maryland are in the process of approving it.
Online Gambling and the Stock Market
Besides its impact on the world of gamers, who will be happy to have convenient access to betting markets, the legalization of online gambling also took the stock market by storm. Online gaming stocks were some of the hottest commodities in 2020 and the first quarter of 2021. One of the biggest companies, Golden Nugget Online Gaming, earned $26.7 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2021.
However, don’t rush to buy online gaming stock just yet to get rich quickly. Things have taken a dip since the beginning of the second quarter, whether due to the reopening of casinos or just the bubble bursting. That does not mean that online gambling is going away; it will just take some time to recalibrate.
Even if predictions for the rest of the year are not as bright as they were for the first quarter, online gambling companies will still be desirable on the stock market.
The Future of Online Gambling
There is nowhere to go but up for online gambling in the United States. As the tide is turning in favor of legalization in more and more states, more companies will jump on this trend. With the base of eligible customers growing by millions as each state legalizes this industry, revenue for these companies will also increase.
Some people are predicting that online gambling will crash as casinos open up. However, gamblers will probably be unwilling to give up the convenience of playing from their homes instead of going to casinos, particularly when it comes to sports betting. Online gambling does not have to compete with casinos because it has a niche of its very own.
Jacob Maslow is a native New Yorker with five children. He left his payroll manager position after finding that his true passion was in writing, and has never looked back.