Across the world, elections are serious business with millions of people casting their vote for local and national representatives to demonstrate and fight for democracy in their country. According to statistics, Turkey, Sweden and Australia have the highest voter turnout out of any other country in the world, by percent of voting age population.
So, what is it that makes voting so popular and could gambling on elections become as popular as casino games? While elections are notoriously hard to predict, gamblers always seem to have a sense of who’s going to win, in which they’re likely to want to wager on it. Sites like si casino have made wagering on casino games highly accessible already, but could election gambling follow? Let’s explore this below.
Is there a market for gambling on elections?
Thanks to new and continuously evolving technologies, gambling has become incredibly accessible and refined in recent years. It’s now easier than ever for people to place their bets on anything from who is going to win in the British Bake Off, to what horse will win the Grand National. The widespread accessibility of gambling sites means that people across the world have been able to take part, no matter what time zone they are in or where they are located, as long as they have a viable internet connection.
However, when it comes to gambling on elections, is there a viable market? Thanks to technology, there are already versions that exist like Kalshi, which enable people to bet on anything happening in the physical world. This could be anything from the likelihood of a national disaster happening, to when there will be a new monarch in England, or even how high interest rates will go. The fact is, you can bet on just about anything on sites like this, so why wouldn’t elections be a part of that.
The popularity of gambling on casino games
Casino games are incredibly popular all over the world, with 1.6 billion people taking part in gambling globally. Part of what makes casino games so popular is how accessible they are, as well as modern technologies that have made them more fun and interactive than their brick-and-mortar counterparts.
Additionally, there are so many casino games available for people to choose from as competition between casino providers has ramped up the quality of services being provided online. Let’s take a look at some of the different casino games that can be played online below:
Online slots
Today’s online slots are barely recognisable when compared to the large slot machines that used to occupy the back of a bar and had the traditional 3 lines with classic fruit symbols. Today’s slot games are much more immersive, feature exciting themes from popular tv shows and blockbuster movies, and have larger jackpots than their brick-and-mortar counterparts.
Poker
As one of the most popular card games to be played, online poker has opened up a wealth of opportunities for people who wouldn’t usually visit a casino to play. What’s more, there are so many variants of online poker to choose from, from Omaha high-low to Texas Hold’em and much more.
Roulette
Unlike the game that was played historically, the modern-day game of roulette involves gambling with cash rather than with your life. One of the great things about online roulette is that there are so many exciting prizes to be won.
Blackjack
As another popular card game, blackjack is highly accessible at online casinos and is easy to learn. There are many resources available online for learning to play, from watching YouTube videos, to reading an e-book or even participating in a free demo-game.
Could election results gambling become just as popular?
In order to gamble successfully, people need to be able to make calculated decisions that are worth their time and money. In order to do this, there needs to be information available to help with these decisions. Today, there are platforms like the FiveThirtyEight which uses a lot of predictive political data available to make betting on elections a viable activity.
While traditionally this information was only accessed by bodies such as newspapers and politicians who wanted to gain information to tailor their campaigns, today this information is available to anyone who would like to access it. As such, election result gambling could well get as popular as that of casino games.
Overall, gambling on casino games is the most traditional form of gambling. Yet, as new technologies are making the digital world more accessible and smarter each day, the act of gambling on election results could well become just as popular.
