If you haven’t already heard about social casinos, you’re certain to be hearing plenty very soon, thanks to the huge growth of this industry sector.

The first social casinos appeared around 2014. At that time, they were a pretty weak alternative to other social ‘Freemium’ games like Angry Birds and Candy Crush. But let’s move on a few years.
During the Covid pandemic, unable to visit land-based options, social casino players signed up in their masses, abruptly putting social casino play firmly on the map. A fact that made a number of real money casino operators pay a lot of attention to this relatively new sector.
Social casinos neatly slide under the radar where US gambling laws (and those of other countries like Australia) are concerned, simply because all games are played entirely with virtual currencies.
This means that casino fans across the US (Washington State excepted) can legally play online casino games to their heart’s content. And that is just one of the reasons that the list of social casinos in the US is continuing to grow rapidly.
The purely social side is pretty much evergreen and will continue to remain that way. It has long been populated by female players in their mid-40s; however, with the influx of additional sweepstakes contests offering cash prizes, a whole new type of social casino player is getting in on the action.
So, how exactly will these highly competitive new-style online casinos fare amongst their real money brethren? Well, the answer is becoming clear. Two world crises have added to the power of the play-for-free operators and with financial belts being tightened across the US, real money online casinos are now having to fight for their space in this rapidly growing industry niche.
A number of the big real money casino brands have not been slow in jumping on the bandwagon, with many launching social casinos which replicate their online or land-based versions. Thus leaving the way clear for players to easily cross the divide to real money games in the future.
Based on those facts, the initial upsurge of players during the Covid lockdowns and the impetus of operators moving forward to embrace offerings from the world’s top games developers, it has become essential to keep existing players engaged and recruit new ones from other social gaming sectors.
All hail the social casinos with ‘super powers’ that are moving into realms little explored – awesome Live Dealer casino table and poker games, alongside upgraded versions of standard games. However, the biggest Ace card of all is the widespread introduction of virtual reality social casino play.
Facts and figures strongly suggest that the social casino sector will soon rival real money online casinos in terms of the number of players. Put into monetary terms, the global social casino games market is expected to top $8 billion within the next few years, indicating a CAGR in excess of 6%.
There are even some operators out there with huge ideas about the development of a “Casinoverse”. A futuristic vision where social casinos will link up and players can meet up with their social media connections in a virtual reality casino world. Although that might sound like science fiction right now, time will tell just how social the digital world could become a few years down the line.





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