In 2005, the first casino mobile game was created by Playtech; in 2021, Google Play agreed to accept gambling games on its platform, which hundreds of thousands play.
Until recently, big online casinos were maximizing their resources on websites, but the shift in focus from PC to mobile forced them to develop mobile apps and mobile games to withstand the test of time.
In this article, we will try to reveal how mobile gaming is changing the face of the gambling industry.
Why is the Gambling Industry Migrating to Mobile?
This is genuinely an easy question once you know the statistics. For example, a quick Google search lets us know that there are 6.648 billion smartphone users in the world today. In percentages, this enormous number, representing the population owning a smartphone, is 83.32% of the world’s entire population.
So, when you’re thinking about creating a website or an app that is appealing to most of the world, the first step is to make it mobile-friendly. Most big enough developers are creating many gambling mobile apps instead of counting on good old websites.
In addition, we found that mobile gamers spent $41.2 billion in the first half of 2022. This giant figure is expected to be overshadowed by the total revenue of 2022 since experts predict the second half of this year will bring more mobile games revenue.
People who play mobile games – statistics for gambling games & others
Over 2.7 billion mobile game players were registered in 2020. Statistics show that in 2022, the number turned to 3 billion. Moreover, it turns out that a significant part of mobile games leans more toward gambling games featured on mobile casinos than other risk-free video games.
Considering that the total number of gamers in 2022 is almost half the number of people who own smartphones in the same year, we could soon observe a significant rise in gamers worldwide. This is due to developers’ efforts to attract a more diverse target audience.
If that happens, the revenues could be even more incomprehensible than they are now. casinoalpha.co.nz researchers have conducted various investigations, and through the process of gathering and analyzing the data discovered, they have found that the mobile games market generated more than $180 billion in revenue in 2021.
This is a considerable number whose evolution will go only up if the interest in phone-based gambling software is maintained or increases.
How Much Time Does an Adult Spend on Their Smartphone?
As apps like TikTok know their demographic and try to catch the public’s attention, so do the mobile games we talk about. A total of 14.4 billion games were downloaded from Google Play and Apple Store during the first quarter of 2022.
And although we don’t know how much an adult spends on their smartphone as a global average, we can find a few statistics that include some countries.
For example, this article by the BBC tells us that Americans spend an average of 4.8 hours daily on their mobile phones. Since we know from the statistics above that almost half of the total number of people with smartphones play mobile games, we understand that a gamer spends at least 4 hours a day playing.
Will New Technologies Penetrate this Market?
The short answer is definitely yes. Since we’re talking about the gaming market, precisely one of its niches – mobile gambling, we can be sure that new technologies will at least try to become mainstream. This is the challenge faced today by Virtual Reality and VR headsets.
Although getting a new type of technology to become mainstream is a long way with many possible demises, the gaming market is probably one of the most receptive in terms of accepting new devices that evolve and complexify the games.
The reason for that? It could be our endless need for satisfaction and distraction, or it could be pure curiosity. In any case, one thing is clear – new technologies will always spark interest.
Augmented Reality
When it comes to new technologies that could penetrate the gambling mobile market, the most potent at this time is Augmented Reality.
For those who have not encountered this term before, AR is a type of technology that allows you to insert a computer-made image into your view of the real world to create a composite image of computer-made objects and reality.
An easy way of thinking about applied AR is Instagram filters.
Now, try to conceive a game that spawns game elements into your living room through your phone’s camera feed. On top of the camera feed, the program shows you a poker table, a slot of your choice, a roulette table, or any game you want.
AR is a powerful tool that can even trick us within limited knowledge environments. This is why the new technology will probably be one of the first to become mainstream within the mobile gambling sector, but its risks threaten people’s mental integrity.
Summing it up
Although we can’t say exactly when it happened, mobile gaming changed and seemed to have reformed the gambling industry into a more approachable, day-to-day interaction with the users.
While the profits and the user percentages are enormous and continue growing, there are legitimate concerns we hope the gambling industry won’t forget about.
Whatever the next technology adopted by the mobile gambling industry will be, we hope that its side effects won’t be ignored because of the enormous revenue it brings to some people through mobile games.