How Millennials Are Changing The Casino Industry
People of all ages love to gamble. But millennials, or Generation Y’ers, in particular seem to be causing a significant change within the casino industry. Land-based casinos have been falling behind ever since the online casino sites have entered the market. Mainly millennials seem to have lost interest in the traditional brick and mortar casinos – and it’s not difficult to see why.
What millennials expect
As products of the digital age, millennials were the first to grow up with video games and many have spent (part of) their childhood with smart devices in their hands. In fact, about 39% of millennials interact more with their smartphones than with their circle of friends and family in real life. Being used to the mobile environment plays a huge part in the fact that millennials prefer to play at online casinos instead of going to physical casinos.
Millennials expect online casino sites to be very fast and responsive when playing online. The website shouldn’t experience much downtime and should be lightning fast on mobile devices. Fortunately, most online casinos these days offer these features.
Online casinos offer a variety of payment options. This is an absolute must if they even want to compete. One area that’s very popular is a fast payout casino. This is highly attractive because Gen Y’ers want access to their money as soon as possible. Not all casinos can process payouts quickly, so those that do get a big advantage.
Let’s not forget about the fact that online casinos usually offer tempting welcome bonuses in order to attract new players.This is a great benefit of online casinos that physical casinos usually cannot offer. Millennials are also known to be tech-savvy people so they can easily compare the different casinos to find the best casino deal out there. Nowadays, there are even several casino sites offering no deposit bonuses. This means new players don’t even need to make a deposit to start playing in the online casino. In order to attract these younger players, casinos know they have to offer something decent to them – which improves the competitiveness amongst casinos.
Additionally, millennials can easily find guides or tutorials online which explain all there is to know about any game in a casino’s offer. They can take as much time as they want to fully inform themselves about a game before they start playing.
Games
So now that we know a few reasons why Generation Y’ers prefer online casino sites over brick and mortar casinos, what do the millennial casino players like to play in them?
Video Slots
What becomes immediately clear is that millennials are fond of video slots. This could be due to the fact that video slots are very trend-sensitive. Many popular movies and musicians nowadays have their own slot game. There are also tons of different themes and storylines. With the average online casino offering thousands of slot games in their library, they are spoilt for choice. Gen Y’ers know the offer of slot machines in land-based casinos cannot beat the vast number of slots available in an online casino. There wouldn’t be enough space to fit thousands of slot machines in a land-based casino.
Millennials also tend to be bored quite quickly which makes the wide variety of slots very fascinating for them. Video slots also offer top-notch graphic effects with colourful themes which are known to be attractive to younger players.
Although slot machines are quite popular amongst millennials, they aren’t spending a lot of money on them. This could be due to the fact that they have witnessed the economic recession. Thus, they have become sensible spenders who like lower-cost gameplay. Slot machines can be played with a smaller budget so this is an ideal choice for millennials especially. Most online casino sites also give tempting welcome bonuses to new players to attract them towards their casino. Some even give a totally free bonus – meaning you don’t need to make a deposit at all to start playing slots. Almost all slots can be played with a casino bonus.
Strategy and skillful games
Some games that are even more popular among millennials are games that require some sort of skill. While slot machines are all about luck and offer great entertainment value, there isn’t much challenge in playing them. Therefore, games that require you to think fast and do some analytical thinking are mostly favoured. A millennial likes games in which they feel they have some sort of control over and which makes them feel engaged.
To appeal to the younger players, various slot game developers such as Next Gaming are creating skill-based slots. This makes the player feel more empowered, knowing that they have an impact on the outcome of the game. This is quite an interesting new gambling niche that is developing due to the needs of a millennial in particular.
Video Game Features
As previously mentioned, Gen Y’ers grew up with modern video games. They were playing video games on Atari, Nintendo and SEGA first, then saw the rise of Sony PlayStation, Game Boy and Nintendo Wii. By now, millennials are used to the sensational graphics and ultra-realistic gameplay in the modern video games on PS5 and Xbox.
This has shaped their needs and expectations into the games they like to play in a casino. They are used to the highest standards of technological advancements. Therefore, games that have video games characteristics are highly favoured amongst millennials.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality casinos are expected to grow massively in the next coming years. By putting on a VR headset you can instantly imagine yourself setting foot in an Ancient Egyptian-themed casino playing against pharaohs and mummies. Or perhaps play on a whole different planet while you compete against other futuristic species? The possibilities are endless.
At the moment, virtual reality casinos haven’t taken off just yet. This is most likely due to the fact that there is hardly a possibility of winning real money at virtual casinos. Winnings you make are paid out as in-game currency which cannot be paid out. But that doesn’t mean that VR casinos aren’t promising. There will likely be a time that VR casinos will find a way to become lucrative for players and will surely spike the interest of the millennial casino player.
We can conclude that millennials have caused a massive evolution in the casino and gambling industry and we can only expect that this will expand with the influence of Gen Z’ers and Gen A’ers.