Popularity of Online Gambling in Asia
Online gambling in Asia is constantly growing and becoming more and more popular. The iGaming sector in Asia has seen constant growth in revenue in recent years, pretty much in all major countries on the continent.
With that in mind, we will take a closer look at online gambling in Asia, what are the most popular forms of online gambling, and take a closer look at the situation in a few different countries.
What Types of Gambling Are Popular in Asia?
The online gambling industry in Asia includes a few different types of gambling, such as online casinos, sports betting, and online lottery.
All of these are popular to a certain extent and the online gambling industry in Asia as a whole is projected to hit around 10 billion US dollars in 2023 (all figures used in this article were taken from Statista.com).
With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at each of these three areas of gambling and their popularity in Asia.
Online Casino
Online casinos have a few different types of games, including video slots, table games like card or dice games, and live casino games.
While slots have been the most numerous and widely popular for years now, live casino games are slowly catching up in terms of numbers and popularity due to their interactive side and the possibility of chatting with other players.
In any case, online casinos in Asia are growing in popularity every year, although they are still behind sports betting when it comes to overall revenue.
That being said, the revenue for online casinos in Asia in 2023 is expected to reach €2.89bn, with an expected annual growth rate of 7.50%.
Sports Betting
As we mentioned above, sports betting is still the most popular type of online gambling in Asia, despite online casino games closing the gap.
After all, the revenue for online sports betting in Asia is expected to reach $6.74bn in 2023, which is way higher than the revenue from online casinos.
In fact, the online sports betting market in Asia is also growing each year, with an expected annual growth rate of 8.41% in the next few years.
Online Lottery
The last type of online gambling that has a big presence in Asia is online lottery. Online lottery is very popular on the continent because it allows players to buy tickets for the biggest lotteries in the world without having to be physically present in the country in which the lottery takes place.
That being said, with the annual online lottery market in Asia projected to reach $0.68bn in 2023, it is clear that this type of online gambling is well behind sports betting and online casino games.
Asia’s Most Popular Online Gambling Markets
Now that we’ve checked out different types of online gambling in Asia and how they fare against each other, we can take a closer look at some of the biggest online gambling markets on the continent.
Japan
Online gambling in Japan is illegal (with a few exceptions), but that law only affects companies that are established and operating in the country. That leaves room for bookmakers and online casinos based abroad to operate within the grey area.
Overseas casinos and sportsbooks operate without any problems in Japan and the country’s online gambling market has seen a huge growth in recent years. In 2023, Japan’s online gambling market will likely come close to $5.49bn.
If you want to learn more about online casinos in Japan and are interested in a comparison site that can provide you with information on many different casinos, make sure to check out https://allcasinos.jp/.
India
Gambling in India is illegal based on the Public Gambling Act of 1867. However, India allows individual states to decide for themselves whether they want to keep gambling illegal or legalise it, which a few Indian states have done.
On top of that, the Public Gambling Act doesn’t mention online gambling at all, which is why online casinos based abroad can operate legally in India.
With that in mind, it’s not surprising to learn that the projected revenue in the online gambling market in India is expected to reach US$2.90bn. The majority of that projected revenue comes from sports betting, but online casinos have been constantly growing as well.
Check out https://allcasinos.in/ if you want to learn more about the top Indian casinos and get some help in finding the right online casino for you.
Thailand
The situation in Thailand is similar to the one in India and online gambling is pretty much in a grey area in this country. Gambling itself is illegal in Thailand, except for government lottery and horse racing.
When it comes to online gambling, that’s also prohibited in Thailand. However, these laws are more focused on casinos than players and many Thai players gamble at offshore online casinos with very little risk. The biggest risk they take is falling for potential scams and dealing with the lack of player protections.
Even though most online casinos in Thailand operate in this legal grey area, the online gambling market in Thailand is expected to reach a revenue of US$546.20m in 2024.
Philippines
Gambling in the Philippines is legal, as long as it is properly licensed and regulated. In fact, the Philippines has a government agency called PAGCOR which oversees the gambling industry in the country and even owns many casinos.
When it comes to online gambling, Filipino casinos and sportsbooks aren’t allowed to offer their online services to the residents of the Philippines, but Filipino players can legally gamble online at offshore casinos.
When it comes to the size of the market for online gambling, it’s far from the biggest in Asia, but it’s constantly growing. The projected revenue in the Philippines for the online gambling market is expected to reach US$680.00m.
Vietnam
Gambling is strictly prohibited in Vietnam. While the country has a few casinos in some of its major tourism hubs, these casinos can only accept players with foreign passports.
The situation with online gambling is pretty similar and even offshore online casinos are not exempt from the law, like we’ve seen in many other countries. Of course, Vietnam citizens often circumvent the law by using a VPN to gamble online, but that comes with a risk.
Singapore
Just like Vietnam, Singapore also has strict gambling laws. The situation was different until 2014 and the country had no gambling laws in place, but since then Singapore has implemented a few different laws, including the Remote Gambling Act 2014.
Of course, players from Singapore can use a VPN to gamble online at offshore casinos, but they risk penalties by doing so.
Final Thoughts
Despite being faced with prohibitive laws, it seems that online gambling in Asia as a whole is on the rise.
Many countries allow their citizens to gamble at online casinos based abroad even if gambling itself is banned, which has led to the impressive growth of the online gambling and sports betting industry in Asia in recent years.
That trend will most likely continue and some countries will likely accept online gambling as a reality and change their laws, which could truly create an additional boom to the industry’s growth.
