Mobile GamblingIt probably comes as no surprise to anyone that the mobile gambling industry is doing really well at the moment. In the past few years, it has soared in popularity, thanks to the advancements in technology and booming, innovative ideas. A couple of weeks ago, the leading agency on gambling regulation in the UK (the UKGC) have released figures demonstrating that the industry’s numbers during the latter half of 2016 and the first half of 2017 have grown yet again.

These figures were published in a lengthy report which are simply bursting with good news but also with suggestions on where the industry could go next. But the question we want to ask is this: how much more can the mobile gambling industry improve until it peaks then begins to wane? More importantly, has it reached this peak already?


 

The Report

UK Gambling Commission LogoThe report the UKGC have published is a long one so we won’t bother you with all the details, but we can give you the highlights. Here were the strongest themes highlighted in the report:

  • Talks of launching a new widespread strategy to improve customer services across all mobile gambling operators. This is to ensure that more players are engaged with content that casinos put out there.
  • Setting up clearer standards with social responsibility in hopes of enforcing it across the board.
  • Joining forces with third party advertising standard agencies so that misleading advertisements can be tackled.
  • Revision of UKGC’s approach to enforcing standards all over the mobile gambling industry.
  • Protecting the integrity of the national lottery and that contributions to great causes are used to their full potential.

Evidently, there are some areas of improvement for the mobile gambling industry. The false advertising in particular is an issue that has long needed to be dealt with. However, overall, the report’s tone was positive and showed a lot of hope for the future. Of course, it’s their job to be upbeat, but it does not feel insincere in anyway.

As the report clearly states, they are dedicated to improving standards across the whole industry to make it the best that it can be. The UK gambling industry is already an envy of the world. Not only is it prosperous, but it’s also tightly regulated and operators see it as one of the biggest markets in the world.

 

Peak Efficiency Reached?

Woman Surprised By Money Coming Out From TabletLet’s imagine that the UKGC do manage to achieve all these goals. Say, in 2018, they’ve upped the standards so high that there’s no place to go, but down. Will the industry continue to grow? It might do, for a while. But while there is improvement, there is growth.

Where there is complacency, there’s stagnation. Having such high standards is a double-edged sword. You set the bar so high that it can be damn near impossible for you to surpass that standard you have set for yourself. Everything else afterwards will seem like an anti-climax.

So, does this mean that the mobile gambling industry has or is about to reach its peak? Possibly. It’s hard to tell without hindsight, but it does feel that it’s getting pretty close to absolute limit of how good it can be. In a way, this is good. It means that (for a couple of years at least) we’ll get nothing but a great selection of new games and casinos doing their utmost to make players’ experiences the best.

This will come to an end, however, and though the mobile gambling industry will hardly crash and burn, there could be a slow decline that will be noticeable through these reports. Profit will be lost and interest in mobile gambling will drop. It may take years to happen, but it is a possibility.

 

New Technologies Add Fuel For Growth

Virtual Reality HeadsetThen again,the opposite could happen also. The industry could continue to boom and growth will climb ever higher as new technologies are made and the mobile gambling industry is forced to adapt. Just look at VR. A few years ago, many thought it was a thing of science fiction.

Now it’s almost common place and the mobile gambling industry has been the forerunner to this. So as long as technology continues to get better, so will mobile gambling. Sure, there’s a few things that can be improved along the way but these are rather minor in the grand scheme of things.