Copyright 2006 Patricia Rossman
It is no secret that despite the legality of online gambling in the United States, it has become the fastest growing industry on the Internet. The desire to wager online has even surpassed the virtual power of online pornography. Online gambling is a $12 billion a year industry, with about half of that amount generated within the United States, and some analysis believe this figure will double by the year 2010. To what secret does the industry owe this awesome success? It’s quite simple from a psychological point of view; individuals indulge in the thrill of spending a little to win a lot. Akin to the lottery it is the purchase of hope, as in the hope of easily taking a few dollars and turning them into a massive amount of money.
Surprisingly Internet gambling marketing campaigns have been almost exclusively geared toward men; that is until now. The majority of advertisements and banners feature scantly clad beautiful young women or round tables full of cigar smoking male poker players. The target audience for online gambling is readily accepted by the industry as the 30-40 year old, college educated male. Even Playboy has its own online casino, which by definition alone is definitely targeted directly and absolutely to the male audience. Why is online gambling almost exclusively targeted toward a male audience? In two research studies one conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Inc. (2006) and one conducted by Luntz, Manlansky Strategic Research (2006) published by the American Gaming Association the percentage of male and female brick-and mortar gamblers was nearly equal with men making up 53% of the population and the other 47% consisting of women. However, men out numbered women almost three-to-one in the virtual gambling world where men comprised 68% of the populations studied leaving women to make up the remaining 32%.
This leads one to ask, where is the disconnect between the two mediums of gambling? Could it be short-sighted, over targeted advertising toward the male audience? Or, could it be that these figures are skewed by including online poker, which is traditionally a male hobby? Whatever the answer is for this phenomenon, one online casino group has finally decided to think outside the box and reach out exclusively to the online female gambling market.
Casino Partners has introduced the world’s first and only online casino created especially by women for women appropriately named Cameo Casino. In a press release in April 2006 Casino Partners stated that, “Women make up at least 50% of players in the online gaming market – a fact that had not been acknowledged in the gaming industry until now. Promotions and advertising have always been designed for the typical “Joe” and have centered around male dominated themes.” Additionally, “Cameo Casino offers more than 80 Award Winning Games, Fast Download, Fast Payouts, Huge Jackpots, and Better than Vegas odds.”
Cameo Casino boosts that, “women deserve a gaming environment of their own and Cameo Casino was designed with today’s woman in mind. It offers cutting-edge and user-friendly software, efficient pay-outs, and round-the-clock customer service, making Cameo Casino one of the premier gaming venues on the network.” Casino Partners is well-known for its top notch online casinos such as Casino Tropez, Vegas Red, Casino Del Rio, and Titan Poker just to name a few.
Cameo Casino offers a refined elegance and five star service coupled with an extremely generous Comp Points Program and extravagant welcome bonuses when compared to industry standards. As a women I found Cameo Casino to be an absolutely delightful and a unique gaming experience definitely created with the women gambler in mind. Although this is only one small step for the visibility of women in the online gambling world, I hope that the success of Cameo Casino will wake up the preverbal marketing industry to the fact that there is a huge market for online women gamblers. We login. We play. And we deserve a bit more attention!
