Morgan Stanley is a reputable US financial firm that often releases reports regarding the world economy. Its latest report published in the beginning of April, 2015, shows the results of the Agency’s analysis of the global gambling market whose estimated worth is $423 billion.
According to Morgan Stanley’s numbers, only 35% of the worldwide gambling revenue comes from land-based casinos. This means that online gaming is becoming more and more popular among players from all around the world. Twenty nine percent of the profit, or $121 billion, is accounted to lotteries, whereas “other gambling” activities such as pari-mutuel racing or sports betting accounted for 28% ($118 billion). The online gambling industry, including online casinos and poker rooms, contributed with “only” $37 billion (9%) to the overall revenue.
Brick and mortar casinos accounted for $146 billion out of which US tribal and commercial operations made $67 billion. Besides the US 46%, Asia and Australia casinos made $61 billion or 42%. The rest of the world casinos contributed only 12%, which is a profit of $18 billion.
Besides the report, Morgan Stanley also provided a list of top five global stock picks in the gambling sector; the companies were ranked in accordance with their estimated stock price. It is interesting that among four casino operators, one European based online casino provider earned a place on the list – Playtech.
Recently, Morgan Stanley revealed that the firm revised its predictions for the US iGaming industry. In their initial report concerning this topic they estimated the size of the American remote gambling market by 2020 at $5 billion; however, in March they lowered it to $2.7 billion. There haven’t been any reports regarding the UK gambling industry, but obviously the country is in a better situation than the United States where the process of regulation is too slow.