Gambling has always been a popular pastime in Zambia. The country has one of the better-regulated gambling industries in Africa and is fertile ground for all types of legal gambling activities.
This means that gambling at casinos is legal and that you can do it without worrying that you are breaking the law. This applies to both land-based and online casinos.
Land-based casinos have had a much longer tradition of the two and for obvious reasons. They have been around for longer and have had the time to establish a name for themselves.
However, the situation in Zambia is changing and it is changing fast. Online casinos are now gaining ground on their land-based counterparts and will soon surpass them.
But what are the reasons for this and how did online casinos suddenly become so popular with Zambian casino enthusiasts? In this article, we will try to discover how Zambia’s budding online casino sector blossomed into a full-fledged gambling industry in such a short period.
Wide variety of reliable online casinos
The number of online casinos is constantly increasing. A decade ago you could only play at a handful of legal and reliable online casinos, but now there are quite a lot of them. This wide variety of options is the main reason why so many Zambians have started to turn to online casino sites instead of brick-and-mortar gambling venues.
However, as with all things Internet-related, you can never be sure that you are playing at a legitimate casino. There are both authentic and scamming online casino sites out there that look similar to each other. And it is often difficult to recognize which is which.
Fortunately, there are online casino experts that can point you in the right direction. The list of the best licensed online casinos in Zambia according to bestonlinecasino.com is a perfect example of this.
Most Zambians who are conscientious about playing at legal online casinos utilize this list and have the best possible gambling experience as a result.
This wasn’t always the case in the past as you could easily fall victim to a fraudulent ‘online casino’ whose only purpose was to scam you. However, now that Zambians have access to sites such as the one above choosing a casino is only a case of which site has the best bonus and not which site is a legitimate casino.
Easy to play
Playing at online casinos is much easier than it used to be. Older generations of casino gamblers might still look at opening a browser as if it is rocket science, but once you explain them the basics, even they can access casino sites with ease.
This simplicity is one of the main reasons why online casinos are becoming more popular in Zambia. All you need to do to play a casino game is to open the desktop casino site or mobile app and it is smooth sailing from there. You can see your slots, jackpots, video poker games, as well as the live casino section right there in front of you. You only need to click on the games you want to play and you are done.
Faster and more affordable Internet
Zambia had an Internet penetration of only 10% in 2010. This increased to 21% in 2015 and 27.85% in 2017. And while these Internet penetration numbers are not as mind-blowing as Nigeria’s figures, they are still better than those of Malawi and DR Congo.
The constant progression in Internet connectivity is an important reason for the increase in popularity of online casinos in Zambia. The fact that it is now easier for Zambians to get fast and affordable Internet access means that more people can have a satisfactory gambling experience. This wasn’t the case in the past as you would have to wait for ages for a slot game to load and once you started playing, it often froze on you.
The importance of having high-quality Internet access was most evident during the COVID-19 lockdowns. During these, Zambian players had to stay for long periods at home and found it hard to go about their daily routines.
Fortunately, a majority of Zambians had Internet access during the lockdowns and they were able to entertain themselves in various ways. They played online casino games, signed up to Internet streaming services, and tried to make the most of living online during a pandemic in general.
Better casino games
The games that you can play at online casinos today are very different from the ones you could play ten years ago. In the past, you could only play games from a few providers and this meant that wherever you went, they had the same games.
This is no longer the case. A modern online casino has games from more than 50 game developers. This means that you can find several thousand games under one roof and their number will be increasing all the time.
The modern online casino that Zambians visit today has tons of different games. If you are a slot games enthusiast, you can play at classic or more modern slot games. However, if normal slots don’t do the trick for you, you can always opt for the more lucrative jackpot slots or the more consistently paying Megaways.
Similarly, if you are into table games, you have several different options. You can go for regular Random Number Generator (RNG) games such as Video Poker, Video Blackjack, and Video Roulette.
On the other hand, if you are after a more realistic table game experience, you should look no further than live casino games. These are streamed in real-time and come as close to the real casino experience as you can get. They are conducted by live dealers/croupiers, have various variants, and for many Zambians, are even better than the real thing.
Better bonuses and promotions
Bonuses and promotions are crucial to any casino experience and are particularly important when you are playing online. The fact that you have a casino account to which the operator can credit bonuses is of huge importance in this regard.
When you go to a land-based casino, no one knows who you are and unless you are a member of the casino, you won’t get any perks.
This is not the case when playing at online casino sites. There, the gambling provider keeps track of everything you do (in a good way) and rewards you with different bonuses for every milestone you reach.
For instance, new Zambian players get very lucrative welcome bonuses once they open a new casino account. These usually double their deposits and give them some free spins on top of that.
After they have used up their welcome bonus, existing players qualify for reload bonuses on every next deposit they make. Also, for each bet placed, Zambian players get loyalty points and once they collect enough of those they get certain loyalty perks.
There are so many bonuses offered by online casinos these days that it is hard to keep track of them all. These promotions, combined with all the factors mentioned above, contribute greatly to making online casinos super-popular in Zambia.
