Social Gaming and Regulated Gambling in US

It's no secret that regulated online gambling in the US is struggling to take off, with credit card processing issues, geolocation software problems and a general lack of marketing being to blame, however the social casino market is having no such problems according to recent research. Eilers Research found that social casino play during Q1 of 2014 generated a huge 10 times more revenue than regulated online gambling, creating around $350 Million against just the $35 Million created from regulated real money online gambling. However, we need to take into consideration that social gaming is available in all states, whereas online gambling is not, in fact real money regulated online gambling is available to just 4% of the US population, to those residents of Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey. Social casinos allow players to play slots and casino games for free, using play money chips, however there are ingame options that allow you to purchase more chips, or credits, and it appears that many people do.

With just 3 states offering online casino games and poker at present, social casino revenue streams will dominate for the foreseeable future with only California and Pennsylvania looking anywhere near likely to regulate gaming of some sort in the near future, and it's the state by state rollout that will keep real money gambling revenues down. The process is a long one with many hurdles along the way, in fact California has been debating the regulation of online poker for many years, and with two bills in the pipeline there is still a chance it will be struck down again. A huge amount of players across the US do of course play in regulated offshore online casinos and poker rooms, many of which like Bovada Poker offer real money online casino and poker, as well as sports betting, and it's looking likely that these establishments will remain the go to places for online gaming fans in the US.