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The inception of the global pandemic coronavirus has massively rocked not the world’s economies but the gambling industry to an extraordinary extent. Gambling has been affected at both the regional and sector level.
Since a lot of land-based casinos in the United State and the world at large closed due to national lockdowns. This enabled sports betting stripped its calendars since all major events got suspended. Uncertainty has arisen regarding when these major events will resume in different leagues in the world.
The Executive Director of Mississippi Gaming Commission, Allen Godfrey mentioned in March that they are expecting Land-based casinos to face some massive benefits from pent-up demand once the storm is over.
“When this is over, people are going to want to be entertained. So, I’m not worrying about any irreversible damage.”
Moreover, gambling industry operators in Mississippi are very much habituated to enforce closures. Casinos in Gulf Coast on the southern side of the state have eased operation for four months due to the devasting impact of the Hurricane Katrina that took place in August 2005.
New Orleans & Coastal MS: Monthly Gambling Industry Revenues – 2004 to 2007
According to the records, the state has experienced a swift recovery between 2006 and 2007 facing a global crisis. Now that there is a much broader economic impact caused by the coronavirus. The shutdown will mitigate fears in the gambling industry. This will also make conditions less favourable in the event that casinos re-open their doors.
Moreover, an Economist at the International Monetary Fund anticipated that the great lockdown will surely provoke a massive global recession worse compared to the Great Depression of the 1930s.
With the world GDP being forecasted to drop 3% in 2020 due to high-single-digit declines in various major Western economies.
On the other hand, HIS Markit has highlighted that the COVID-19 recession will be much deeper compared to the one during the financial crisis of 2008-2009. This is because the real-world GDP is likely to drop by 2.8% in 2020 compared with a 1.7 decline in 2009.
Conclusion
The gambling industry will surely have a massive test in the next coming months. Most of the land-based casinos surely need to survive this period of recession. But according to Allen Godfrey, there is a real possibility that casinos will surely recover from this period of the financial crisis.
And everything will go back to normal. On the interim, gamblers can still rely on playing online casino games at the comfort of their home s during the lockdown period.