NJ Online Casinos are Thriving Despite COVID 19 Economic Downturn

Few industries have been able to escape the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic, with demand decreasing dramatically or disappearing altogether as the nation and the world adapts to cope with the evolving threat.

There are, of course, some areas which have not just been able to tread water in this context, but actively benefit from the challenging circumstances precisely because of the way they operate.

New Jersey’s online casino scene has been one such beneficiary, so here is a look at how they have been unaffected by the wider economic downturn and how they look set to remain buoyant going forward.

Digital businesses are bulletproof

The simple fact is that in NJ the best online casinos on bestonlinecasinos.com are all immune to the chaos that their land-based equivalents have had to put up with.

Real world casinos not only had to close their doors for months once the pandemic hit, but also had to re-open with far smaller capacities, social distancing measures and PPE required for employees and customers alike.

Meanwhile because anyone with a smartphone in NJ can download officially licensed casino apps and play to their heart’s content without having to leave the couch, operators had no such hurdles to overcome.

Indeed it is specifically because so many people were stuck at home when the deadly virus threat was at its highest point earlier in 2020 that more users were made aware of the opportunities offered by online casinos. So once the lockdown restrictions eased and land-based venues were available to visit again, plenty of loyal players chose the convenience of web-based gambling anyway.

This resilience has of course been key to the successes that NJ’s online casino operators have enjoyed recently. And of course it is worth remembering that they were already making significant headway before the current crisis arose, with annual revenues pushing close to $250 million and taxation on these activities injecting more cash into the state’s war chest.

Physical businesses are benefiting too

What is worth noting about New Jersey’s approach to licensed internet gambling is that sites cannot be run by organizations that are not also tied to a specific land-based casino location.

The upshot of this is that while there was and continues to be significant disruption brought about by COVID 19 in bricks and mortar casinos, the companies behind them were not just sitting there losing money; they were relying on their online offerings to keep bringing in the bacon in the interim.

The likes of Caesars, Golden Nugget and the Hard Rock Hotel, which operate online brands including UniBet, Bet365 and 888 Poker in NJ, have had their digital services to fall back on while making progress to adapt to the unavoidable uncertainty that exists in the traditional casino context.

Coupled with the aforementioned advantages associated with these operations drawing down tax dollars that all residents of the state can benefit from, and it is easy to see why there is growing acceptance of online casinos as not just legitimate in their own right but arguably essential to shoring up the economic prospects of states like New Jersey during times of crisis.

Employment advantages are becoming obvious

In January of 2020, the unemployment rate in NJ was at 3.8 per cent, a figure which pointed to general economic stability with room for a little improvement. By June, it had jumped to 16.6 per cent, a worrying leap that the pandemic is directly responsible for.

While many industries have been shedding jobs rapidly in recent months, the rise in popularity of online casinos has made it necessary for operators to expand their workforces and create the kinds of positions that many newly out of work individuals will be eager to fill.

There is a clear benefit to working in a predominantly digital organization from an employee perspective, particularly in the current context of social distancing being required in many public buildings. Online casinos can easily allow staff to work from home, so that if further restrictions and disruption is caused, they will be able to weather this storm and keep people on the payroll regardless.

Hopefully the extent to which online casinos in New Jersey have been able to thrive in the face of one of the most daunting economic downturns in recent history will set an example for other states which have yet to legalize online gambling. It will also be interesting to see whether changes to customer habits in this industry brought about by the pandemic will be permanent.