From the 90s, Mark Griffiths had public a series of thesis about iGaming. He had accurately predicted the future of this industry many years ago. At that time’s technology, it should be hard to imagine.
In 1999, he pointed out that six factors of iGaming’s development in 1999, they are:
- sophisticated gaming software
- integrated e-cash systems
- multilingual sites
- increased realism
- live remote wagering
- improving customer care systems
At present, it is not hard to find that all of the predictions by Griffiths had come true. Many games be coded by various programming languages to suit for various devices and systems; almost all platforms offer multiple currency exchange service and multiple languages interface; live casino games make players feel as if they are betting in real casino; players can remote wagering for sports betting or lottery by internet; operators can use the back-stage system to understand about customer and get more profit from it. So we can see that all the prophecies have been realized!
Griffiths also made a prediction about the future of people’s entertainment. He thinks people will tend to do leisure activities at home. He called that is “cocooning”. In fact, there are so many “homebody” guys now also confirm this.
Power of E-Cash
There is an interesting thing be mentioned by Griffiths. That is his description of E-Cash.
In the general case, when people use a credit card or debit card to purchase something will be more decisive. That is because they would not feel their money disappeared from the hands. Similarly, people use tokens to play slot machines, there will be the same situation.
So, chips and tokens “disguise” the money’s true value and decrease the psychological value of the money which used for gambling, it will cause they re-gambled often without hesitation as the psychological value is much less than the real value, Griffiths said (2002).
It is well known that players have to use a credit card to exchange token to bet on iGaming. so…what do you think?
Gambling Addiction of iGaming
Griffiths showed that if players bet on iGaming, its convenience, event frequency, asocial nature, and anonymity will make them addictive more easily than a real casino.
Especially asocial nature, and anonymity, if an average Joe who access to casino frequently it is a strong possibility he will be subject to pressure from his family or friends. But, what if he bet om iGaming? Those who maybe never know he is so addicted to gambling.
Conclusion
In fact, Griffiths was based on his concern. He worried that Internet Gambling will cause social problems. It is Clear he thinks that iGaming industry will grow fast by its convenient and addiction.
In his papers, the iGaming’s global market size of 2001 was 2.3 billion. According to Research and Markets latest published, global market size of 2016 was 44.1 billion! So it grew 18 times in the past 15 years! This report even estimates for the next 5 years, iGaming global market size will grow up to 87.7 billion!
The potential of this industry was foreseen so long ago, have you captured this big chance? If the answer is yes, do you have used the right way to operate it?
References
- Mark D Griffiths (2002), The Social Impact of Internet Gambling, Social Science Computer Review, Vol. 20 No. 3, Fall 2002 312-320
- Global Online Gambling Market, 2017-2022 - Research and Markets (2016), Research and Market
