Are women the new force in online gambling?
15th July, 2009
Women seem to be taking to the online gambling tables as much as males, even though previously this was seen as a bit taboo.
There are many reasons for this shift, due to the higher acceptance of online gambling across consumers it has more of a mass market appeal which has been made easier by the use of broadband and credit cards.
Advertising has also focused more so on females for bingo and slots, in particular by advertising sponsorship deals with female orientated TV shows such as Jeremy Kyle.
Larger jackpots, community atmosphere and the smoking ban has also encouraged women to leave the land based bingo halls and take part in online bingo activities. Bingo certainly seems to be the most popular form of online gambling for women as 70% of players are female. This could be due to the very female orientated layout of sites such as love bingo and cheeky bingo
Women’s play differs from males as women prefer bingo and slots due to their low risk stakes. Although women gamble more, they spend less time playing and their deposits are smaller.
Bingo is not the only form of gambling women love; poker is becoming increasingly popular with predictions being that “one third of online poker players will be women by 2011”. This is due to poker companies aggressively targeting the female demographic.
This is definitely true as poker companies are now organizing female only tournaments and are inviting more female journalists to write about them.
Females are definitely a key aspect of any online gambling website’s strategy as female player numbers are evidently on the rise. However males still dominate the online gambling world and continue to make up the majority of this ever expanding market.
By Faye
