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Online gambling is undoubtedly on the rise, with record numbers set for online casinos, sports betting, and online lottery.
The entire online gambling market is expected to hit $95 billion in revenue as of 2023, with an 8.54% projected growth by 2027.
This is as far as worldwide gambling is concerned – but how does each country specifically fit in within these numbers?
We’ve done thorough research to discover which countries have the biggest impact, and we will share all of the most important and interesting findings in this post.
Let’s get started.
Online Gambling Australia
Australians are widely recognised as the world’s biggest gamblers (sorry Las Vegas), with 73% of adults having gambled at least once in the past 12 months.
The most popular gambling activity among Aussies is lotteries and scratchies, with a 64% participation rate. These games are usually popular among people aged over 50.
Following behind is race betting at 39% and sports betting at 34%. Finally, 33% of Australians play pokies at online casinos, which are usually popular among those aged over 30.
Now, it’s important to remember that the percentages don’t add up to a hundred because each individual will participate in more than one gambling activity.
The average losses per player are over $1,000 during a single year.
Online Gambling Canada
Even though Australia is considered the country with the highest percentage of gamblers, it’s actually Canada where online gambling has the highest user penetration rate of 48.8%.
Over 60% of Canadians report that they spend money on sports betting or casino games, with over 19.3 million active online gamblers at the time of writing.
While the percentage of gamblers is very high, the wagers are actually quite lower compared to other countries, with the average Canadian spending $6,75 on sports betting, casino games, or other gambling activities.
With the Ontario gambling market now fully regulated by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission (AGCO), the revenue is expected to rise to $3.69 billion in 2023.
Online Gambling USA
Online gambling in the USA is also on the rise, with more and more states starting to legalize sports betting and online casino operators.
As of 2023, 26 states have legalized online sports betting and 6 states have legalized online casinos.
The US online gambling market size is worth $4.39 billion as of 2023 and is expected to grow to $9,42 billion by 2028. This is a CAGR of 16.52 during the forecast period, and it’s expected to happen due to more and more states starting to legalize online gambling.
Online Gambling UK
The UK is actually the only country on this list where all forms of online gambling are legal and overseen by the UKGC (the United Kingdom Gambling Commission).
The total estimated losses recorded in 2023 are £412.9 million, according to the UK’s government economic analysis.
Among the interesting facts is that over 420,000 UK players lose more than £2,000 in online gambling annually, with the lottery being the most popular form of online gambling among Brits with a 14% participation rate.
Worldwide Rise of Online Gambling
As of 2023, the user penetration is 2.3%, which is expected to rise to 2.9% by 2027.
The revenue numbers are also quite high compared to previous years, with the whole market worth $95.05b in 2023.
This revenue, based on reliable sources, is likely to grow by 8.54% and reach an astounding $131.90b by 2027 – at which point the number of worldwide users is expected to reach 233.7 million.
The force behind these staggering numbers is the easy access to online casinos via smartphones and strong marketing campaigns to attract new customers.
According to a study conducted in 2018 by the American Gaming Association, there are over 2,800 sports betting sites available worldwide – and this doesn’t account for the number of online casinos.
To truly help you understand just how big this market is – online casinos that want to get a license to operate in US states must team up with land-based casinos so they won’t go bankrupt at some point in the future. How crazy is that?
The Crypto Gambling Effect
Another thing that plays a huge role in those numbers is crypto gambling, which accounted for 35.96% of all bets placed in Q1, 2022, according to SoftSwiss.
Bitcoin is leading the most within those numbers, with 72.80% of bets placed using it. Next is Ethereum, with 13.45%, and Litecoin, with 6.45%.
And with metaverse casinos on the horizon, we can only expect crypto gambling to slowly catch up with – and even exceed – traditional online casinos.