How Much Does it Cost to Open a Casino? Smart Money expert answers

If you consider a web casino as one of the options of your own business, I want to disappoint you a little: it is impossible to open an online casino for free or with minimal investment. Any business, especially such profitable as gambling, requires investment at the first stage, after the launch and even years after the opening, when everything running like clockwork.

There is only one way to open a casino without investing any dime. It involves searching for an investor for your business plan. In this case, you will never feel like a full owner of the casino, because all the assets will belong to another person — there is a point in understanding it.

However, it is still possible to minimize your expenses, and further, I will tell you how it can be done when you open an online casino.

Let us first look at what steps the creation of a web casino includes:

• registration of business and obtaining a gambling license;
• choice of software (gaming system, gaming slots, payment modules, etc);
• creating a website, buying a domain and hosting;
• support service connection;
• advertising promotion.

These are the stages that should not be missed if you want to create a promising casino and work legally. You can save on some of them, but on others cannot in any case. And even more: the more you invest, the more profit you get.

Step 1. Registration and Licensing

The amount that you will have to pay for obtaining permission to organize and conduct the gambling activity entirely depends on the country where you want to get a license. The modern world allows the casino to operate on a global scale, attracting players from all continents. So, you can get a license where it is more profitable for you.

For example, the UK Gambling Commission will require about 40,000 pounds while applying a package of documents, and the same amount will have to be paid for the operation of the license each year. The license in Belize will cost $18,000 upon application and an additional $10,000 each year upon renewal. But in Gibraltar, a gambling license can be issued for only $3,900, but you should be prepared to pay at least $ 112,000 annually as taxes.

Thus, the average cost of obtaining a license for an online casino is $15,000. And that is without considering taxes and associated costs; alas, it is impossible to avoid such expenses.

What other cost items should be considered while planning licensing:

• payment of the consultants’ work under local law;
• server support + work of technical specialists (a number of jurisdictions require to keep transit servers on their territory);
• air travel, payment for a stay in the country;
• fee for translation and certification of documents, salary for translators, etc.

In addition to this, the Commission may ask you to provide a documentary confirmation from the bank that you own a sufficient capital to pay players in case of large winnings. Typically, this amount varies from $50,000 to $1,000,000.

It is necessary to approach the choice of jurisdiction consciously. In some countries, it is easier to deal with the tax system, in others — with operations in the international market. In any case, the jurisdiction is chosen not for the cost, but for the opportunities, it discovers to the entrepreneur.

That is why we recommend making such a decision carefully and with the assistance of an experienced specialist who can tell about all the pitfalls of gambling legislation in different countries, about the peculiarities of taxation, as well as other subtleties that can simplify or, in contrary, complicate the work of the casino.

You can find such a specialist at the Smart Money company. It has an excellent team of lawyers, entrepreneurs and casino software developers, which makes it one of the best company in the world. You can safely trust them and discuss the features of your business. It is here that you will be helped to realize the full potential of your idea.

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Step 2. Selection of Gaming Software

The gaming system is a special fundamental program for online casinos, which is the basis for the installation of slots, security systems, affiliate programs and other necessary stuff for the effective operation of the resource software. This is the foundation, and the entire infrastructure of the future casino is built on it, so to speak.

Creation of systems for casinos is carried out by studios, which for the most part specialize in gambling direction. After all, in this field not only the transparency of the operator and the safety of the entire system is important. The peculiarities of the players’ psychology should also be considered.

The average price for casino software from a well-skilled developer is about $5,000.

Surely you have immediately recalled dozens of different offers on the forums and in advertising, where you can allegedly download a good and free casino script. It should be taken a little time to think and realize: no one will spend their time and effort to create a script, then to share it free of charge on the Internet. Obviously, the creators have a hidden selfish interest.

Therefore, it is better to immediately spend the necessary amount for good software and not to worry that at the crucial moment, when your site will be regularly visited by players with large deposits, it can let you down. The gaming system is the key to your success, do not skimp on it!

The procedure of gaming slots purchase is usually passed quite easy because in most cases the provider sells them in a package with the gaming platform. But it is not always like this, and over time the desire to expand the selection of games on the site still takes place.

Nobody buys only one game. You should consider the package options of 10, 20, 50 or more slots. At least it is much cheaper. The cost can “float” depending on the producer, your partnership with the seller and even the availability of shares from the provider. At the start, it is better to buy slot machines already with the platform — it is cheaper and faster.

Step 3. Creating a Website, a Domain and Hosting Purchase

Today it is almost impossible to create a good website on your own because the work on it consists of many elements: the development of a key idea, design, layout, choice of CRM-platform, active functions programming, content updating, and it is not to mention advertising and SEO-promotion.

A separate specialist is engaged in the work on each stage, and sometimes even the whole team. Usually, the creation of a gambling site is trusted by a professional studio that is versed in the specifics of the industry. Thanks to this approach, the site is 100% hits the target audience and shows a high conversion rate.

Creating a high-quality casino website will cost $1,000 or even more, depending on its configuration. If you want to get a portal with an original design, in contrast to other sites, user-friendly interface and easy promotion in search engines, get ready to pay a large amount.

In this separate paragraph, we will highlight the issue on SEO-promotion of the gambling project. The experts recommend spending on it at least $500 per month to gradually raise your position and outdistance the competitors.

Direct advertising of gambling sites in social networks and even in the Google advertising network is prohibited, so online clubs make a lot of efforts for natural promotion in search engines. The more you spend on SEO, the faster your business grows, so it is impossible to specify the upper limit of this expense item.

Step 4. Support Service Connection

No matter how hard you try to work, you will not be able to serve the players’ requests 24 hours a day. If the first few days after the launch in this way you can still work, then with the increase in traffic you will definitely need assistance.

Modern online casinos provide support via three main channels:

• live chat on a website;
• call centre;
• email correspondence.

It will be great when the support operator can understand via any of these channels the status of the player, the history of his actions on the site, transactions and current balance. It means that it is necessary to install a special CRM-system that allows to qualitatively carry out the support of players. The cost of such systems — from $2,000.

Add to that the staff salary: at least 2 shifts of 12 hours while working 2/2 — it is 4 employees with a salary from $300 per month. At the same time, as experience has shown, 1 person on shift will not cope with the flow of customers (especially on holidays). In general, the organization of the support service is an expensive privilege for a new business.

Nowadays, the owners of online clubs connect their casinos to remote support centres, where work the experienced employees. This gives several upsides:

• players receive high-quality support services;
• you transfer all requests from the site to the remote centre, and everything works automatically.
• you pay only for the processed requests, due to which you optimize the costs well.

Step 5. Advertising Promotion

Of course, it is not enough just to create and run the casino. You have to enter into a tough race for the attention of potential players, snatching them out of the endless flow of information. Today, online casino marketing is infringed by many platforms, so advertisers have to look for more and more new ways of promotion, that requires significant investments.

Usually, web casino advertising includes:

• placement of advertisements and banners in affiliate networks;
• advertising performed by bloggers, translators of popular films, online media, etc.;
• promotions, discounts, bonuses to lure new players to the site and motivation to open the first deposit;
• loyalty program for users who are familiar with your site;
• email newsletters for “sleeping” customers.

There are two serious reasons why you should not engage in advertising personally if you are not familiar with the features of gambling marketing:

• There is a danger to squander the budget if you are not familiar with advertising tools.
• There is a risk of violating local advertising laws (it is relevant for each country where you attract players).

Unfortunately, the reality is that many countries are indeed very aggressive towards advertising gambling services, and therefore impose all sorts of restrictions on the promotion of casinos and betting shops. It takes nothing of running into a huge fine.

If you are not 100% sure that you can safely and effectively organize advertising promotion, it is better to entrust this work to a marketing specialist with great experience in the field of gambling. The work of such specialist costs from $1,500 per month and more, depending on his/her qualification.

In addition to this, do not forget that you need to have a budget for promotion. As in the case of SEO-promotion: the more — the better. There is no accurate amount.

So, is there any way to save on opening an online casino? The total amount for a casino with a minimum configuration is more than $20,000.

The largest part of the expenses falls on the registration of the license. Fortunately, it is possible to avoid this long and complex process. You can buy a casino based on the White Label model, to obtain a sublicense from the seller and to operate completely legally.

The purchase of White Label makes the significant savings possible at the start. You do not need to pay for applying for a license, there are no associated costs. The domain of your site is entered into the existing license documents as one of the subsites, and you get the opportunity to safely enter into contracts with payment operators, run ads and attract players.

Next, you need to buy software and a package of gaming slots, and the players’ requests can be transferred to the seller’s support service. The starting cost of White Label is about 5-10 thousand dollars and depends on the configuration and additional services.

Anyway White Label is the easiest, cheapest and fastest way to become an owner of your own online casino today.

If the template solutions are not suitable for you, and you know exactly what is missing in the modern gambling market, you should order the development of turnkey online casino according to your requirements. The Smart Money company, which was mentioned above, just have such services and well-versed professionals ready to bring all your ideas to life.

Just sign up for a consultation and find out how much a ready-made casino or its development costs from scratch. Surely, you will be satisfied, as it is much cheaper than the independent passing all the way from obtaining a license to the arrival of the first customers.

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