Friday view: It's not a man's world

Victor Stinga, mFortune’s Affiliate Manager, explains why the rise of female roulette players indicates shifting demographics in mobile gaming

If you ever visit a casino on a cruise ship around the Mediterranean, you’ll be able to discover a great deal about casino demographics without the aid of any industry report. It can be an experience invaluable to marketers, affording an insight into the different types of players found in a casual gaming environment.

On entering, the division between table games and slot machine players is more striking than in a traditional casino. By slot machines you will find casual players, mainly women, many of them trying the games for the first time. Dotted amongst them are the more experienced players, those that have been on many cruises and are familiar with how a casino works.

At the table games, you’d come across tentative, casual players, placing a few chips here and there on the roulette table, or dabbling in some card games. It’s here, in this male dominated area, where the more versatile players are based, casino regulars who enjoy more masculine games like roulette.

Stumbled Upon

Live tables have always had a higher appeal to men, women being more intimidated by the croupier and the games’ rules, especially when it comes to roulette. However, this image of the traditional casino is being challenged by a growing trend of female players found at the roulette table on casino floors.

The reasons for this sudden change are manifold, but its roots can be traced back to the increase in women found in the boardroom at an executive level. Already familiar with a masculine environment, these women are unfazed by the hustle and bustle of a busy casino, and enjoy the same activities as their male counterparts.

The cruise ship metaphor is an apt one for mobile gaming. Because what we are looking at with mobile gaming is a mass of casual players, among which are found the hardcore players. On a cruise you have a great number of people searching for entertainment. They try the casino because it’s visually appealing, and simply just because it’s there. It’s the same in Appstore when players stumble upon a real casino app. Something about the app attracts them, they try it and some end up depositing.

Breaking the stereotypes

No great shocks so far. But the interesting thing is that amongst these casual players it is becoming less and less unusual to find female players at the roulette table. It’s always been a male-dominated game, but roulette seems to be accommodating a large number of women eager to get involved. Nor is this development restricted to live casinos; online operators are also seeing a rise in female players placing down their bets.

All of which leads to the question, ‘well, what do we do with this information?’ It becomes immediately obvious that some cross selling can be employed here, after player profiling has be done correctly. In addition, software developers can use this knowledge to include features for  this demographics.  The conventional boundaries have shifted, and it’s up to operators to keep up.