The Coronavirus, or COVID-19, has spread quickly around the world, infecting almost every country on the globe. Hundreds of thousands of people are testing positive daily and many countries are declaring states of emergency and going under complete lockdown. With the world going into what appears to be chaos, how is the economy doing? While the tourism market is taking a strong hit, is the iGaming market in America seeing growth?

Gambling during a pandemic
COVID-19 has shut down businesses worldwide with only a few exceptions, like grocery stores, being allowed to operate semi normally. This has resulted in a lot of people having to stay home for very long periods of time. Now that people are home more, will they gamble?

The struggle most people face today is job loss. As more and more companies lose business, the need for employees becomes low and cuts are made. A lot of people have lost their income because of being forced to take vacation days now that their companies have closed with no clue when anyone will be able to reopen. This could mean a lot of those at home will not be able to fund their online gaming accounts because paychecks are no longer guaranteed.

Online casino operators are still operating as usual, as the majority of iGaming companies can operate from home. However, sports betting could be a completely different situation.

Online casino VS. sports betting
As the world continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, online casinos and sports betting face different scenarios. Unfortunately in the United States, all major league sports, as well as college games, have been canceled. This means that no one can place bets on NBA, NHL, and the college league. Because of this, the sports betting world could see a dip in bets being placed as there isn’t really anything to bet on.

States that have legalized online sports betting are doing what they can to get through the pandemic, but know they could be losing billions of dollars by the end of it. Daily Fantasy still remains an option and is keeping most companies afloat right now.

If we look at online casinos, there is much more potential for the market to stay alive. Another big reason is because of all of the land-based venues now shutting down, ultimately giving players nowhere else to play. While live dealer games probably won’t exist for a while until the virus is contained, virtual games will not be canceled, and online casinos will still be active around the clock.

Conclusion
Only time will tell and show us the full effects the virus will have on the iGaming industry in the USA. Online casinos are doing well right now, and even continue to offer competitive casino bonuses, which you can find at NJCasino . Compared to sports betting, online casinos have a much greater survival rate and should remain the same. While we can only predict what we think will happen, we hope the virus can be contained before the economy takes a lot of hard hits.