As mentioned in the last week’s casino industry recap, Nevada casinos and resorts have reopened. Many other states followed the same path this week. As a result, in the last couple of days, we saw casinos reopening in Florida, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and a few other states.
The number of casinos that are back in business is growing all the time. What’s strange is that their stocks have been dropping. On Thursday, shares of some big-name casinos plummeted by more than 10%.
- Shares of land-based casinos went down, but online gambling sites keep making big money.
- Research reveals Canadians play casino games with higher RTPs than US players.
- Dates announced for 2020 Online WSOP and WPT Online Poker Open.
Casino Shares Falling Down
Shares of several casino companies dropped down by more than 10% on Thursday. Some of those companies include MGM Resorts International, Wynn Resorts, and Eldorado Resorts. Eldorado, the company that operates 23 casinos across 11 US states, was hit the hardest. Its stock shares fall by 17.2%.
Economy experts believe that the reason behind the sudden drop lies in the recently-revealed prediction of the Federal Reserve for 2020. As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the US economy is expected to shrink by 6.5%.
Another reason why the shares of big casino companies have started to go down is the fact that earlier this week, America saw a mild increase in COVID-19 cases. This was the case in some states where casinos and resorts have started reopening.
Meanwhile, online casinos keep on recording significant revenues. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused players to switch their focus from land-based establishments to internet-based platforms.
Online Poker Universe Keeps Expanding
Earlier this week, PartyPoker announced the WPT Online Poker Open is going to take place on June 28. With a $300,000 guaranteed prize money, this is going to be PartyPoker’s biggest online tournament ever.
This is going to be a single tournament, with several phases and many ways to get in on the action. On the day of the tournament, the fee to join in is going to be set at $400.
Just three days after this tournament, another important milestone in poker’s history is going to happen.
𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗗 𝗦𝗘𝗥𝗜𝗘𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗣𝗢𝗞𝗘𝗥 𝗢𝗡𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟬
85 WSOP Gold Bracelets Up for Grabs This Summer in "World Series of Poker Online" Tournament. WSOP Expands Partnership with @GGPokerOfficial . Read more: https://t.co/kulG3JxgPe pic.twitter.com/ADfCg3gVM5— WSOP (@WSOP) June 8, 2020
On July 1, the WSOP and GGPoker launch their online tournament. This is going to be the first time in history that the WSOP is happening on the internet. There are 85 WSOP bracelets up for grabs, with the prize fund measured in millions of dollars.
Super-High RTPs For Canadian Gamblers
Many casino aficionados believe that it’s not safe nor convenient to go to brick-and-mortar casinos. At least not until the COVID-19 crisis is completely over. Until then, internet casinos are the only alternative.
As a result of the high demand for online casino games, operators have started tweaking their business practices in order to make their platforms more attractive to players. Apart from offering attractive bonus deals, some casinos have decided to increase the RTP (return to player) percentages.
Speaking of which, recent research has revealed that Canadian gamers get to play casino games with higher RTPs than their southern neighbors.
According to a recent article by Montreal Times, RTPs in Canadian casinos are higher than those at US casinos. The research cited in the article suggests that most casino games available to US players have RTP’s somewhere in the ballpark of 95%.
Canadian players, on the other hand, tend to play games with RTPs around 98%. The reason for this isn’t that Canadians are particularly picky when it comes to internet gaming. They’re not intentionally focusing only on high-RTP games. Instead, the reason behind this is that most online casinos that accept Canadian players have games with high money-making potential.
The good news is that there some of those online casinos accept players both from Canada and from the US. There are plenty of internet gaming sites where you can play slots with higher-than-average RTPs.
Ocean Princess slot is probably the best example. The brainchild of Playtech developers, this 2D 3-reel slot has a theoretical RTP of 99.01%.
