The ECA’s Economic Impact studies in 2020 and 2021 highlighted the fact that land-based casinos were hardest hit among all the gaming sectors as national
governments responded with
drastic measures to curb the spread of Covid-19. Closures, restrictions, and
reductions to the gaming offer halved member revenues in 2020 and continued into 2021.
ICE has always been one of the most important events in the annual calendar of the European land-based casino industry, but this year is especially significant. Gathering in London after two years apart, is extra special.
Acknowledging this, the ECA congratulates Clarion Gaming for its courage and determination in presenting this year’s event in the face of extreme uncertainty and obvious challenges. We understand that this is not ‘business as usual’ for the exhibition this year, as the industry continues to rebuild and restructure in response to the pandemic. However, it is vitally important for a sector that prides itself upon exemplary customer service and socially connected gaming, that we meet, as we have always done, in-person at ICE London. We are, after all, very much in the face-to-face people business.
I believe this is the dawn of a new era for the European casinos. For this, events such as ICE are vital in that they illuminate the path ahead, driving innovation, presenting new technologies to ensure that the land-based casinos continue to be engaging, exciting and relevant to the casino-going audience both now and in the future.
Following one of the most difficult periods ever faced by the casinos in Europe, the challenge of stabilising and rebuilding the business falls
INSIGHT EUROPEAN CASINO ASSOCIATION
not only upon the members of the European Casino Association, but on all of us in this room today. Never has the unified voice been more important and relevant than at this moment right now.
Te support and assistance provided by the European Casino Association to our members has been crucial to the effective pandemic response of the European casino sector as a whole. Te licensed casino industry has gone through a valley of tears in the last two years. Te ECA’s Economic Impact studies in 2020 and 2021 highlighted the fact that land-based casinos were hardest hit among all the gaming sectors as national governments responded with drastic measures to curb the spread of Covid-19. Closures, restrictions, and reductions to the gaming offer halved member revenues in 2020 and continued into 2021 with the average European casino closed for over 150 days last year. Te resilience of the industry was tested to the extreme.
Let me give you some examples: traditional land-based casino gaming revenue in 2020 was down 47.7 per cent compared to the 2019 pre-pandemic levels. Almost half.
While it is true that members experienced the economic effects of the pandemic to differing degrees, with Luxembourg, for example, reporting a negative impact of 5.2 per cent, such a result has proved to be an outlier compared to the much more significant impacts witnessed in Austria, France, Greece, Latvia, Sweden and many other countries, in which revenues fell by over 50 per cent.
2021 was a mixed year compared to 2020, but it is very clear that the pandemic impact continued to cut deeply into the land-based casino sector; across 10 countries, casino gaming revenue increased an average of just 2.9 per cent in 2021, compared to 2020, which was already one of the weakest years in the history of European casinos. In other words, there was very little by way of recovery for the sector as a whole, although significant variation between countries could be observed.
Some countries reported improvement in revenues in 2021 compared with the prior year, but
WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS P27
Austria, France, Latvia and Switzerland reported lower revenues against 2020 figures. Compare this to the United States for a moment, where land-based commercial casinos reported annual record revenues from traditional slot machines and table games in 2021; an increase of 67.7 per cent compared to 2020, according to the American Gaming Association.
On average, land-based casinos in Europe received 55 per cent less visits in 2021 compared to 2019. Austria, France, Greece and Sweden all reported a decline of more than 60 per cent in total visits compared to pre-pandemic figures.
Te impact of the pandemic on the land-based casino industry is in stark contrast to the nationally regulated online casino or online gaming sector in Europe. According to data aggregated by VIXIO GamblingCompliance, online casino gaming revenue across 13 regulated markets in Europe grew at an average of 52.5 per cent in 2020 compared with 2019, and then a further 54.1 per cent in 2021 vs. 2020.
VIXIO’s data looked solely at the regulated online gambling industry, and I make this distinction to highlight the devastating Tsunami
2021 was a mixed year compared to 2020, but it is very clear that the pandemic impact continued to cut deeply into the land- based casino sector; across 10 countries, casino gaming
revenue increased an average of just 2.9 per cent in 2021,
compared to 2020, which was already one of the weakest years in the history of European casinos.
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