Many of the casinos we have reviewed and recommend at Slots Play Casinos, such as Intertops Classic Casino, have grown significantly this year because of the lockdown of land-based casinos. This leads us to observe that 2020 has taught us many things. Some of the lessons of 2020 are quite important.
People are Very Resourceful
The coronavirus seemed to hit Europe and then North America like a giant bomb exploding. We were all shocked when the government of Italy closed all of northern Italy from Venice to Milan.
How can they do that”, we asked. Then, a couple of days later, we heard that they had closed the entire country! The people of Italy were in self-quarantine in their homes. Then we watched YouTube clips of people all over Italy singing to each other from their porches!
People are indeed highly resourceful! This lesson is so important that we can take it with us going forward. No matter what the challenges might be, people can overcome difficulties and find a silver lining in whatever circumstances they find themselves.
Singing from rooftops and balconies spread to many countries with variations on that theme developing. For instance, some countries held a two-minute silent salute to first responders and emergency room doctors and nurses who worked to exhaustion treating corona patients especially in the very early days when we thought the virus was historically dangerous.
Gaming is a Lot More Important than We Had Thought
We have all read and heard in recent years that simply playing games is important to our overall health. Gaming, in 2020, took on a life-saving aspect as people were stuck at home for great lengths of time.
Some of the people who were stuck at home could not work remotely so they relied on games to keep their spirits high through the uncertain times.
Online casino gaming became much more than just a fun pastime. It has always been primarily a fun pastime. Online gaming has always been a major contrast to land-based casino gaming.
- Online casinos cost nothing to get to whereas most players have to travel to get to a land-based casino.
- Players at a land-based casino pay for accommodations while players at home are… at home!
- Land based casinos return a smaller fraction of bets to players because land-based casinos have a lot more overhead than online casinos have.
- Land based casinos are limited by their floor space so they have to take something out in order to put a new terminal in. Online casinos are located in unlimited (as far as we know) cyberspace.
What this all means is that after so many players who had played at land-based casinos exclusively discovered the more flexible and accessible world of online casinos, they also discovered a whole new world of gaming.
They discovered this at just the right time!
Companies Use Gamification to Increase Productivity
The term gamification took on an entirely new and different meaning as people began working from home by the millions. Companies used modern communication technology to run meetings. Gamification uses ideas from game theory in a business setting. Companies had to find fun ways to keep employees active in a friendly and fun way since the natural camaraderie that people used to find at work was no longer there.
One aspect of game theory is the notion of small talk. Chess, for example, is a very serious game that requires a great deal of concentration. However, chess has given us the notion of the kibitzer, a person who chats up others looking on at a friendly chess game.
Companies have gone to running meetings every day even if they used to run one meeting a week. The main purpose of these meetings has evolved into kibitzing, that is, talking about one’s family, activities, shows one is streaming in the evenings, and many other topics of interest outside of the nuts and bolts business stuff.
This past year has taught us that the people we know from work are no less our friends than the people we grew up with or friends we have made outside of work along the way.
Gratitude
This once was an emotion we felt deeply: gratitude to our parents, to our communities, to a special teacher who helped us immensely along the way. Gratitude went hand in hand with deep religious conviction.
This year, we have felt gratitude for many things we used to take for granted that we could not experience this year. Anyone who, in 2020 had to go through Christmas, Thanksgiving, Ramadan, Id el Fitr, and Id el Adha, or Passover alone will never again take these family get-togethers for granted.
Relax and Slow Down
In 2020, we discovered one of the main contrasts between land-based casino gaming and online casino gaming: online gaming is conducive to relaxation and calming down.
Land-based casino gaming is not conducive to any of these desirable effects.
At a good online casino, gamers can curl up and relax after their workday. Even if one’s workday was spent in a bedroom outfitted to be an at-home office, the workday was long, often tedious, and at times tense as deadlines continued to come despite the virus.
No deadline ever had to cancel itself because of the virus.
Land-based casinos are designed for the optimum in stimulation and in your face excitement. Here at Slots Play Casinos, we understand the attraction of land-based casino gaming for its excitement. The lights, bells and whistles, hustle and bustle, extravagant sensory input, the shouting that emanates from the roulette and craps tables are all designed to give players a great on-land gaming experience.
2020 has taught us that more than anything we need to stay calm. We need activities that keep us calm. Bird watching in many parts of the world has become a favorite pastime of people who never looked at migrating birds before!
Migrating birds are a fascinating phenomenon of nature. They fly in large groups and in formation. It has served to keep people calm just to watch the birds fly outside their living room window!
Getting out into Nature
Being confined at home has led to many people valuing the great outdoors now more than ever. We spoke about bird watching. A lot of people are discovering hiking, bicycling, boating, and fishing as excellent outdoor activities they can do even during a lockdown in many places.
This leads gamers increasingly to online casinos where the emphasis is on frequent short gaming sessions rather than weekend-long marathon sessions at land-based casinos. When you are out in nature, if you have to play a few games, you can use the excellent mobile gaming platforms so many top online casinos offer.
While we fully understand the attraction of land-based casinos, here at Slots Play Casinos, primary focus is to online casinos. We encourage everyone to join an online casino such as Intertops Classic Casino and find out for yourselves that online casinos have much to offer!
If nothing else, 2020 has taught us to revel in the small pleasures we can enjoy whenever we wish and wherever we are!
