It seems that some big players in the industry of online casinos have finally come out and admitted that the struggling economy is indeed hitting hard on business revenue. This has not been something that any online casino operators have been incredibly forthcoming with. The internet casinos seemed to have thrived on their “financially immune” reputation that has helped them outlast and outperform many land-based casinos even in normally super strong and consistent business environments such as Las Vegas.

But now the online gambling group 888 Holdings plc has released a report that indicates that things may not be quite as upbeat and rosy as many online casinos would have you think. It appears that the decrease in consumer spending has finally hit and had a decidedly negative impact on the casino gambling business. Revenue is just not what it used to be thanks to this gloomy and seemingly endless recession that has gripped the United States and countless other countries around the world.

For 888 Holdings, the second quarter for the year of 2009 was not a very good one. It seems as though the operating income dropped a total of 12% al the way down to $61 million compared to just a year ago. $61 million dollars may seem like an awful lot of money, but the financial loss does not spell anything positive for the future outlook economically speaking at this time. The quantity of active internet poker and casino players has lowered about 8% down to 180,000. Both of these figures were also not too strong for the first quarter as well.

One further criticism that has popped up in regard to the evils inherent in the industry of online casinos is that they are now considered to be taking business away from state-run lotteries. In a time when the recession seems like it will never end and the credit crunch is putting many different companies right out of business, state governments are definitely missing the money that they could potentially be earning with their lottery systems. But there has been a gradual shift in society also that has resulted in fewer and fewer people, especially in the younger generations, are not as inclined as the older generations such as the Baby Boomers, to get in on the magic of buying lottery tickets.

In a recent survey it was found that Baby Boomers are moving more away from being regular buyers of lottery tickets as they gear up to head into retirement. In American it seems as though the peak age range for people who purchase lottery tickets is somewhere around 50 to 64. This is the age range that the Baby Boomers are moving away from so the quantity of lottery players in the United States is waning. And the younger generations seem to be choosing online casinos as money-risking adventures instead of lottery drawings.

The challenge for lotteries within the United States now is to find ways to attract new people to invest their hard-earned dollars in what used to be the biggest odds game in the entire country. Right no the bread and butter demographic for players of the American lotteries are about 35 years old or older. Only time will tell if online casino sites will continue to capture the lottery business. It doesn’t seem like casinos will be relinquishing their business any time soon.