Inside Asian Gaming

IAG JUN 2023年6月 亞博匯 76 COLUMNISTS which continues to this day, with dedicated movie-goers wanting to watch films in an undistracted environment and in the format that directors originally intended – on the big screen with cinema- quality surround sound. What’s this got to do with gaming? Well, I contend that the growth in online gaming that is occurring and will continue to occur – whether governments like it or not – will ultimately drive interest in playing games of chance in opulent surroundings and on green baize. Just look at how online poker powered the rampant growth of the live version of the game, such as the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas every summer. WHEN EVERYTHING IS ONLINE, WHAT’S LEFT? My third argument continues with the theme of the omnipresent shift from the offline world to the online. Accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, almost everything seems to be going online, including things that once might have been thought impossible. Every hot new business seems to involve technology and the mobile phone – which has long ceased to be a phone! Banking, communication, dating, education, health care, the media, retail, working – the list goes on and on and on. Do you see where I’m headed here? Ultimately, everything will be online. There won’t be a single thing you need to do that you can’t do online. Once we get to that place of utopia or dystopia – depending on your point of view – what will be left for the offline world? Only