A Canadian national survey analyzing the interests of gamblers has revealed that younger gambling audiences in the country prefer technology driven gambling games over older, more traditional land-based games. According to the article published in the Montreal Gazette by Alan Gregg, who also reported to the 2008 Canadian Gambling Summit, a third of Canadians admitted to be gambling significantly less than they did 30 years ago. This stood in stark contrast to the large amount of under 35 gamblers who said that they are likely to be gambling a lot more since the introduction of online casinos and technology platforms for online gambling games. Despite the obvious rise in younger players of online gambling games in Canada, the industry is still not able to take advantage of the market due to legal restrictions, which outlaw online gambling as illegal.
The Chairman of Harris/Decima said plainly "Unfortunately for lottery jurisdictions in Canada, this younger group favors the technology driven gambling options of the future." Furthermore, he reported that 56 percent of people aged from 18 to 35 years considered online sportsbetting, internet poker and web-based gambling games as "acceptable forms of gambling". Similarly, they also viewed interactive lottery gambling games, the purchase of lottery tickets via mobile devices and interactive TV gambling as preferable options over land-based gambling.
The recently conducted survey included 3,047 Canadian participants, and showed that only few older gamblers actually preferred online sports betting; 20 percent of those over 55 and 35 percent of those over 35. Despite legal restrictions, there is currently up to $400 million being generated each year by young Canadian gamblers via foreign jurisdictions.
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