The gambling industry in many developed countries has grown exponentially over the last couple of years and experts estimate that judging by current trends, the industry would continue at a fast rate.

The global gambling market size reached a value of nearly $449.3 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.9% to nearly $565.4 billion by 2022, according to statistics reported by Businesswire.

According to Jpost, 2018 statistics show that the U.K casino industry contributed approximately £137.5 billion (GBP), employing more than one hundred and six thousand people yearly.

Statista reports that in 2018, the U.S. gambling market revenue reached 79.42 billion U.S. dollars. This includes all revenue from commercial gaming, iGaming, limited stakes gaming and tribal gaming.

The Canadian Gaming Association reports that gaming is a major money-maker in the Canadian economy. Supporting over one hundred and thirty-five thousand full-time jobs and generating almost $9 billion every year, the Canadian gaming industry is said to be the largest segment of Canada’s entertainment industry.

With this enormous contribution of the industry to the global economy, many environmentalists have started to wonder about the environmental impact of the traditional gambling industry and whether a shift from brick-and-mother casinos to the online casino model will lessen the industry’s overall carbon footprint and contribute to reducing its impact on the environment?

According to an article on Jpost, the traditional casino industry is responsible for a percentage of the greenhouse gasses released into the atmosphere based on the fact that casino-goers need to travel to the physical casino to play gambling games like poker, blackjack, and roulette.

The article insists that the percentage of greenhouse gasses that the casino industry is responsible for is quite hard to calculate, but offers a broad guideline and assumption for the United Kingdom:

“If we assume, as highlighted above, that 46% of UK citizens partook in one or more gambling activities in the last four weeks.” The article says,“And, we take the total percentage of greenhouse gasses as being 100%. And 1% of the 100% is caused by one individual; then, the gambling industry is responsible for 46% of the greenhouse gasses emitted into the atmosphere.”

The argument for online gambling

A move from traditional to internet gambling would mean that casino lovers no longer have to transport themselves to their favourite casinos; this will lead to a little reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Punters will be able to play their favourite casino games from the comfort of their bedrooms and couches and there will be a reduction, however little, in greenhouse gas emissions.

More importantly, with the on-going global health crisis, most of the world’s population have been mandated to stay at home in a bid by many governments to slow down the widespread infection rate from crushing the world’s health systems. Many businesses have had to operate solely on the internet as this is the most effective way to keep generating income while the world battles a pandemic. Online casinos are not left out, moving casinos online is the only way to provide gambling pundits with the opportunity to play their favourite casino games like blackjack, roulette, and slots and keep providing revenue for the economy.