Australian Casinos online

So a few weeks back we took a look at how we thought the Australian casino scene was shaping up, and the issue of competition kept coming up. It hasn’t gone away in the meantime, by any stretch of the imagination, and this week we’d like to take a closer look. With James Packer’s Crown Casinos coppering up for a likely takeover of Echo Entertainment, and the online casinos facing a new challenge from the mobile casinos hitting the market as we speak, there could well be some changes to the way we enjoy our occasional flutter in the near future. But how will fans of the pokies (and of glittering nights out at the casino resorts) be affected?

Competition is a fact of life for Australian casinos. They exist in an intensely competitive market – Asia-Pacific not only boasts some of the biggest casino resorts in the world, but also some of the best. And it is a market that thrives on innovation: the entry of the Singaporean casinos onto the scene has caused ripples of change to spread throughout the region, and the owners of casinos in Macau, Australia and in the rest of the world are positioning themselves to take advantage of the new trend towards integrated casino resorts.

The key thing to understand about the gaming industry in Asia-Pacific is that it is thriving. And the catalyst behind that success, even in a time of economic uncertainty right around the world? China, and the growing millions of its middle-class, who are poised to travel to tourist destinations outside China, who have money in their pockets, and who like a gamble almost as much as we do here in Australia.

The numbers are compelling. Millions of tourists from China come to Australian casino resorts each year, and they spend billions of dollars when they get here, too. Better still for the casinos are the ‘whales’ – the VIP high-rollers whose bets run into millions of dollars, and who make the luxury of venues like The Darling at The Star in Sydney justifiable by the backers of Australia’s casinos.

Of course, a venue like The Darling, and a casino resort like Melbourne’s Crown Casino, brings in the sort of high-prestige custom that only adds to the glamour of the venue: we’ve seen George Clooney and Paris Hilton (amongst many others) showing their support for Australia’s casino resorts in the past year or so.

So the Australian casino resorts have been a success story over the past few years, and we have especially seen some exciting new developments, and some intriguing new proposed investments, in recent months. Of course there are benefits to Australians beyond those who benefit directly, like James Packer, whose Crown Casinos company has been looking to consolidate its market share.

Tourism brings dollars with it, and whilst there have been (often valid) reservations about the exact place of casino resorts in the communities around them, the impact in cities like Melbourne and Sydney has been positive.

The issue we’d like to look at more closely today has been raised several times in the press in recent months, in the form of Crown Casinos’ proposed takeover of Echo Entertainment. It’s part of a larger question that troubles us, as lovers of Australian casinos. One of the things that drives the casino resorts to improve is the competition between them.

It is James Packer’s intention, no doubt, to provide a single strategy for Australia’s casinos, in the hope that they will better be able to compete on the world stage. But Australia’s casinos are already rightly regarded as some of the best in the world. It is intense competition that has resulted in a clutch of world-class casino resorts in Australia, not some master-plan. A monopoly of Australia’s casinos feels to us (lovers of an occasional bet who make the trip to venues like Crown Casinos and The Star when we get the chance) like it would take away some of the dynamism from the industry. A look to the online casinos would suggest there’s truth in this.

The online casinos – and there are some great ones that we’ve reviewed for the site, like Spin Palace Casino and Jackpot City Casino – are rightly renowned for their innovation, and for the intensity of the competition between sites for customers. The results are almost always benefits to us, the customers: better games and more of them, sign-up bonuses, 24-hour technical support, transactions in Australian dollars (and sites dedicated to gamers here in Australia, too), play-for-free options, loyalty schemes, satellite tournaments for events like the Aussie Millions.

And it’s not likely to stop any time soon, as the online casinos begin to see a challenge from mobile casinos available to users of iphones and other smartphones. The big online casinos have already committed to mobile casino versions of their own sites, and the choice of games is getting wider and wider.

Intense competition resulting in better services for gamers, and at better prices, too. We can’t see that a takeover of Echo Entertainment by Crown Casinos, which would make a single entity of two of Australia’s biggest and brightest casino-owning groups, would be of immediate benefit to Australian customers. We’re not party to James Packer’s long term plans, of course, and it’s definitely fair to say that his casinos have been responsible for bringing the lion’s share of overseas tourists to Australian shores (and the money that comes with them), but we’re not entirely on board with the idea of his being the final say as to the direction Australia’s casinos take...