Morgan Stanley Report published that worldwide players of Social Casino Games are estimated to reach 800 million (Morgan Stanley Report, 2012). The other hand, approximately 26% of social casino gamers reported may migrate to iGaming. It is mean that iGaming industry still has more than 200 million potential users on a worldwide scale!Social Casino Games are flourished while Social Networking Sites(SNS), like Facebook, Google+ etc., became popular. There are more than a million gamers play free gambling game on the internet every day. It causes those long-term researchers of problem gamble started to concern about that free gambling games may fuel the iGaming industry.
The Social Casino Games are defined as those games are not required to the monetary payment, based on substantial interaction with a social media platform, and themed to simulated gambling activities. Many well-known SNS such as Facebook, Google+ and so on. Not only allowed people communicating with each other, but also offer developers be able to launch their web games in SNS platform so that SNS users can strengthen interaction with others through these games. And the Social casino game is one of them. After a time, mobile devices have also become popular. The same business model has also been transferring to App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android).
In Social Casino Games, SNS platform allowed users to cost a little money to make the game goes more smoothly. They can exchange more token to extend game times or purchase some tools to win more easily. However, no matter how many virtual currencies users won, they will never be able to exchange it for real money. It obviously is the biggest difference point between Social Casino Games and iGaming.
In order to test the possibility of Social Casino Games’ users migrate to iGaming, 409 users are drawn as samples by scholars for tracking and observation. These users were limited to those who played Social Casino Games and who had not previously gambled on the internet for real money. In the end, 26% of Social Casino Games’ users migrated to iGaming in 6 months.
Obviously, users of Social Casino Games are undoubtedly potential iGaming players. This is a huge potential threat to society. But for iGaming industry is a great opportunity! You are able to greatly enhance your business if you know what are factors and motivations make players migrate, aren’t you?
Factors and Motivations
According to past researched, more than 50% of disordered gamblers who were seeking treatment stated that Social Casino Games were their first experiences with gambling (Parke et al. 2013). Scholars pointed out there are few things might be cause Social Casino Games migrate:
Time spent
The more time a person spends playing Social Casino Games, the more likely it is for the person to see gambling as an acceptable everyday activity and may develop positive attitudes toward gambling (Hyoun et al. 2014). So we can hypothesize that if a user spends engaged in Social Casino Game, the possibility of migrating will be greater.
Skill Building
Social Casino Games’ users used the free game as a training ground prior to migrating to the paid game. We can foresee that a person who would feel strong self-confidence if he invincible in Social Casino Games. It may have strongly driven him to migrate to the paid game because he thinks about him can earn a lot of money from the way. However, free games are easier to win than paid games. This is because payout rates of almost 40% slot machines of free games are greater than 100% (Sevigny et al. 2005). So, if someone overestimates his skill, for the playing Social Casino Games, he may pay a terrible price after he migrated.
Enhancement
Social casino games are designed to increase player experience by maximizing enjoyment and providing a sense of excitement to the social casino gamer (Derevensky et al. 2013; Sapsted 2013). However, tokens of free game are worthless. The amount of excitement one can experience when wagering nothing of monetary value may be limited (Hyoun et al. 2014). Moreover, past research has found that the excitement of gambling will diminish over time, gamblers have to increase the size or frequency of their bets to obtain the same level of excitement (Derevensky 2012). As such, free game players may tend to migrate to the paid game to do real money gambling in order to obtain the same level of excitement previously provided through Social Casino Games.
Micro-transactions
Micro-transactions may be a crucial predictor in the migration to online gambling (Hyoun et al. 2014). As we mentioned previously, most of the Social Casino Games offered virtual currencies and tools for players so that they can purchase them to extend game times or make the game more easily. However, unlike iGaming, you will never be able to exchange you token to real money even you win more than 100 million. As such, since you decide to cost your money in a game, why don’t you try the way you can win back your wager?
Conclusion
Although the number of players of Social Casino Game has already reached 800 million in the past years, the real active users are not so much actually. However, more than 10 million free gamer worldwide daily, it is still considerable. As iGaming industry workers, both you and I should know that important issue: how Social Casino Gamer will migrate to iGaming player.
Reference - Derevensky, J. (2012). Teen gambling: Understanding a growing epidemic. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishing. - Derevensky, J., Gainsbury, S., Gupta, R., & Ellery, M. (2013). Play-for-fun/social casino gambling: An examination of our current knowledge. Final Report to the Manitoba Gambling Research Program. - Hyoun S. Kim, Michael J. A. Wohl, Melissa M. Salmon, Rina Gupta, Jeffrey Derevensky (2014), Do Social Casino Gamers Migrate to Online Gambling? An Assessment of Migration Rate and Potential Predictors, Journal of Gambling Studies December 2015 - Morgan Stanley Report. (2012). Social gambling: Click here to play. New York, NY: Morgan Stanley Research. - Parke, J., Wardle, H., Rigbye, J., & Parke, A. (2013). Exploring social gambling: Scoping, classification and evidence review. Final report submitted to the UK Gambling Commission. - Sapsted, T. (2013). Social casino gaming: Opportunities for 2013 and beyond. London: FC Business Intelligence. - Sevigny, S., Cloutier, M., Pelletier, M., & Ladouceur, R. (2005). Internet gambling: Misleading payout rates during the ‘demo’ period. Computers in Human Behavior, 21, 153–158. - Vegasmaster (20)Social Casino Games: A Money-Making Enterprise
