LAS VEGAS – The prolonged recession is still having a significant effect on the gaming industry, and despite some indicators showing a slight improvement in economic conditions, gaming professionals’ opinions on the economic future of the industry have not changed much since last year. This is according to the results of the second-annual G2E SmartBrief survey released today by the American Gaming Association (AGA). Data was collected during a two-week survey of 198 subscribers to AGA SmartBrief, a daily electronic gaming industry news aggregator.

This year’s survey includes two questions also asked of respondents in 2009 in order to measure changes in attitudes about the impact of the recession on the gaming industry. When asked to describe the current state of the worldwide gaming industry, responses to the 2010 survey closely mirror those from one year ago. Nearly half (48 percent) of 2010 respondents say business conditions are getting at least somewhat better, compared with 47 percent in 2009. Nearly one-in-five (19 percent) of this year’s respondents say conditions are getting at least somewhat worse, compared to 20 percent in 2009. One-third of respondents (33 percent) say conditions are still depressed but not getting better or worse, compared to 31 percent last year.

Despite having similar opinions on the state of the gaming industry, respondents to the 2010 survey are distinctively less optimistic about how long it will take for the health of the worldwide industry to return to pre-2008 levels. Only 11 percent of 2010 respondents think the industry will bounce back in one or two years, while almost one-quarter (23 percent) thought the same in 2009. Almost half (44 percent) of 2010 respondents think it will take the industry three to four years, and more than a quarter (27 percent) say it will take five to nine years for the health of the industry to return to pre-recession levels.

“The recovery that we had hoped for last year has yet to take hold, and that has tempered some of last year’s optimism,” said Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr., president and CEO of the AGA. “The results of this survey show that we still have a long way to go until the gaming industry is back to where things were before the recession.”

When asked to predict, on a scale of one to five, with five being “extremely likely” and one being “not likely at all,” the likelihood of the United States legalizing some form of online gambling within the next two years, survey responses revealed uncertainty and a lack of consensus about the issue among industry insiders. No response received more than one-third of the votes, with 31 percent of respondents choosing “3”, almost one-quarter (24 percent) selecting “4” and 22 percent opting for “2.”

Expansion is always a hot topic for the gaming industry, and survey respondents were asked to weigh in on two expansion issues: saturation in the U.S. market and the growth of international markets. Those surveyed are divided on the subject of saturation, with nearly half (48 percent) saying that casino expansion has reached a saturation point in the U.S., and an equal number disagreeing.

When it comes to the subject of international expansion, an overwhelming majority (67 percent) of survey respondents think that Asia will see the most industry expansion and growth during the next decade. South America was the next most popular answer, deemed most likely for growth by 9 percent of survey participants; Europe followed closely with 7 percent of respondents.

Survey respondents also gave their opinions on the technological innovations they think will have the greatest impact on casinos during the next 10 years. A plurality of respondents (42 percent) says that online gambling will have the greatest impact, while more than one-quarter of those surveyed (27 percent) say networked and server-based gaming. Property-wide rewards program integration and hand-held gaming devices were chosen as the most impactful technological innovation by 11 and 10 percent of respondents, respectively.

AGA SmartBrief is a daily e-newsletter sponsored by the AGA and Reed Exhibitions designed to keep gaming industry professionals better connected and informed. Using proprietary technology, AGA SmartBrief editors distill and disseminate the most pressing industry news stories, free of charge, to nearly 12,000 subscribers each day.

AGA SmartBrief survey results were announced during Global Gaming Expo (G2E) 2010. G2E is the leading trade show and conference event for the international gaming entertainment community, attended by more than 26,000 industry professionals from around the world. For more information on G2E 2010, visit www.globalgamingexpo.com [2].

To access complete survey results, or to subscribe to AGA SmartBrief, please visit www.americangaming.org [3].

2010 AGA SmartBrief Survey Results

The data featured below was collected during a two-week survey of 198 AGA SmartBrief subscribers in October 2010. Percentages may not add up exactly to 100 due to rounding. For more information about the survey, or to subscribe to AGA SmartBrief, please visit www.americangaming.org [3].