Casino portal launches in Asia in response to growing interest in online gambling

Baccarat.net – an online resource hub for the casino game – has announced plans to expand into new markets and offer tailored content to baccarat players from Asian countries and regions. Launched in 2017, the website has become a popular online destination for English-speaking players looking to play online baccarat in both practice play and real-money versions.

The content published on baccarat.net is being translated and adapted into Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Indonesian, and more languages in order to meet the growing interest in online gambling among Asia-Pacific players.

Baccarat.net has already begun launching geo-targeted content to cater for players who want to learn the rules of the games, read about the different variants, and find licensed and certified online baccarat casinos where they can play for real money.

Currently, the website has made its content available in 15 different languages and has plans to add more native versions for players from around the globe. The team behind the website explain they are focusing on regions such as Macau, Hong Kong, and Singapore since these are the markets that have been most active in online searches and casino registrations over the last years.

Typically popular with Asian players, baccarat makes up most of Macau’s gambling income, which is the region’s biggest revenue generator. Referred to as the “world’s gambling capital,” Macau’s gambling revenue for 2018 was $37.9bn compared to London’s $18.7bn and Las Vegas’ $6.6bn. $20.5bn came from VIP baccarat on top of $12.74bn from all other baccarat players.

However, the data from the region’s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau for 2019 shows only four months of growth and eight months of contraction, with December 2019 having the biggest decrease of minus 13.7%.

While some of the reasons for the decline could be attributed to the influx of Asian tourists to the Las Vegas strip and Australian casinos targeting high-rollers as well, the other explanation for the waning interest in land-based Macau casinos is the availability of online casinos. This has become even more evident from the surge in online registrations from the region during the two-week shutdown of the Macau strip due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Considering the legislation changes that the Asian gambling market is introducing, the baccarat.net team have expressed certainty their online library of resources and tools giving insight into the software and algorithms used in online games will be useful to Asian players.

Countries like the Philippines and Singapore have already made online gambling possible for their residents, provided they register with casinos holding licenses from organizations such as the UKGC and the MGA. In the meantime, Japan has the potential to become the third-largest gambling market in the world after Macau and USA if the Japanese government passes legislation for online casinos and poker the way it has done for sports betting and lottery.