In both land-based casinos and online casinos sites, there has been a huge shift in promoting games with vast jackpots. Over the last few years, more and more connectivity between games and sites has seen an explosion in progressive jackpot games. Some casinos sites might have 50-100 progressive jackpot games with prizes potentially worth millions. Naturally, those games are placed front and centre of the sites.
The concept of progressive jackpot games is quite simple, yet incredibly effective when it comes to creating big prizes. A jackpot game is linked across rival casinos and, possibly, different countries, and each wager contributes to the building of the pot. Each spin might only contribute a tenth of a penny, but after millions of spins, it can grow to huge amounts.
Casino increasingly focus on headline jackpots
Yet, if casinos were only based around winning large sums of money on progressive jackpot games, they would be no different than playing the lottery. Those games offer other entertainment, of course, but the big prizes must not be the only reason for playing.
The point is that casinos have always been presented as affordable entertainment; or, if not affordable, then accessible. Even today, you can still play games like penny roulette and penny slots, almost for free when you use exclusive bonus offers. Those games won’t make you millions, but nor do they claim to offer untold riches. Those games are designed for those who don’t spend time in the VIP lounges and executive suites.
And, it’s important that casinos do not lose sight of promoting (relatively) affordable entertainment. Casino games, online in particular, have changed dramatically over the last decade: It’s expensive to create branded casino games based on comic-book heroes or the latest movie releases; it’s expensive to buy studios and hire real dealers to deal those cards and spin the roulette wheels.
Those overheads have to be recouped somewhere, and it’s natural enough that the cost is recouped from the players somewhere down the line. It might come out by way of having higher minimum bets or a less generous house-edge.
A typical online casino slot will have a minimum bet between £0.10 and £0.50, and a typical live dealer game will have a minimum bet of £1.00. While those figures are reasonable, casino operators should not be too tempted to raise them, lest they price potential players out of playing the games.
Some revenues have dipped
Despite the clichés, profits for the casino industry are never guaranteed, but the industry itself has expanded massively over the last decade. Many arms of the industry – from Atlantic City casino resorts to online gaming companies like Paddy Power Betfair PLC and software developers like NetEnt – have reported dips in revenue in quarterly reports over the last 18 months.
Of course, those revenue dips can’t be attributed to affordable gaming, but it does highlight that the industry faces challenges. The UKGC 2018 Report on Gambling Participation found some interesting statistics: In a study showing the reasons people gamble, the report found that “to win” was the biggest reason, with 49%. However, 29% cited the most important reason as entertainment/having fun. And, only 18% claimed to gamble to attain a jackpot or life-changing sum of money.
Certainly, it’s no surprise that wanting to win money is a reason for playing, but casinos should not lose sight of the second most popular reason – entertainment. There is still room for growth in the industry and it is far from a saturated market; but keeping that entertainment affordable should not be overlooked as a marketing strategy to attract new players and retain them.
