U.S. online gambling numbers remain muted

Gaming analysts have been studying the latest regulator numbers on online gaming in the three legal jurisdictions of New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware this week, with Morgan Stanley commenting that, whilst numbers are lower than initial predictions; i-gaming will be an $8 billion industry in the United States by 2020.

“Estimates change based on market conditions and i-gaming is currently in a state of flux,” the respected analyst opined. “Once we start seeing other states join the market, we will get a more realistic picture of what the future of i-gaming holds.”

Total online and mobile win for February was $11.29 million, with New Jersey contributing $10.3 million, Nevada $824,000 and Delaware $170,000.

Since online gambling launched last year in Nevada, with New Jersey and Delaware following suit later, over $37.2 million in revenue has been recorded, made up of $8.5 million from online poker in Nevada, $28.1 million from New Jersey and $600,000 from Delaware.

The slower return on investment prompted companies like Morgan Stanley to recently revise downward their initial estimates of the size of the US market , but there is still optimism regarding the development of the industry and its future medium to long term success in the United States.

The original assessment that the market would be worth $5 billion by 2017 was downgraded to $3.5 billion, which has been to some extent validated by New Jersey’s results as the biggest region in the nascent field, which in the first two months of 2014 has generated $19.7 million in revenues.

In a tweet earlier this week, independent analyst Adam Krejcik of Eilers Research drew a comparison between social online gambing and conventional remote gaming, noting that the social genre epitomised by IGT‘s Double Down Casino alone generated $64.8 million in the last quarter, whilst to date all remote gaming revenues have totaled $37.2 million.

The conclusion he reached was that for the foreseeable future social gaming will dominate the sector.