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Gambling is seen as a sport dominated by men. Although that is mostly true, women have quickly garnered interest in slots, bingo, and skill-based games. In India, online gambling is becoming insanely popular since most of the country now have access to the internet. But, how popular really is online gambling with Indian women?
Women and Gambling
Gambling is on a steady rise for females all over the world. According to the UKGC, 40% of all online gambling users list themselves as female. Another study done by the UKGC asked women if they have ever gambled online, and 44% of those questioned admitted they had, while 30% stated they did so in the last month. What’s also true about women is they prefer social gambling. 19% of online gamblers prefer this method over interpersonal games.
A Million Dollar Business
Online casinos have spent a lot of money trying to appeal to a female demographic. Some websites were made to appeal to specifically women, by using pink as a dominant colour, while others ran limited campaigns to attract more women. One of the more famous ones included Paris Hilton, which attracted thousands of women to online gambling websites. Most websites attempt to appeal to both demographics, like Casumo India, for example. This has worked out better in the long run, as women don’t feel like they’re being manipulated or catered to.
Gambling in India
Revenue
India is the world’s largest and fastest-growing online gambling market and currently places 6 in the most revenue earned by country. In 2018, India spent 130 Million American dollars at online gambling websites. It’s projected that by 2021, India will be worth 1 Billion American dollars – a 20% increase each year.
Online Users
525 Million Indians have access to the internet, whether that’s from a computer or a mobile phone. That’s over ¼ of the Indian population. 97% of internet users get access to the internet with a mobile phone, and 3% of the world’s total app downloads are from India. 29% of India uses a mobile phone, and when you add all of that together, you have a significant gambling market.
Profiling an Average Online Gambling User
The broad market of gambling users from India are males aged 20-44, live in South India, gamble for entertainment, and use their mobile devices to do so. Males dominate the use of gambling in India for two reasons: males typically dominate the industry, and cultural structures in India make it difficult for women to use the internet and enjoy freedom online.
How Many Women Gamble in India?
Unfortunately, there aren’t any readily available statistics about how much women gamble in India. Online gambling in India is illegal in some instances, and this may deter more women. Online websites that exist overseas are legal, but this may not be apparent to all users. We can guess how many women gamble online by using other information available to us.
Approximation of Female Indian Gamblers
Since women make up 40% of the gambling industry, that means that on average, they would make up 20-30% of the Indian market. With 525 Million Internet users, we can guess that 1/16 of that population gamble online. That leaves us with 94 million. If 25% of those 94 million users are female, that would mean that approximately 23.6 million women gamble online.
As stated, this is just an estimate based on the available data, but that would still mean Indian women could make up 3% of the entire industry – a significant amount. This would make online gambling incredibly popular for women in India.