Your love for online casinos and saving the planet can coexist. Gamers, here’s what you need to know about betting on casinos addressing their emissions.
“Eco” is the big word of today; businesses and individuals alike are looking for ways to get a little greener and protect the planet. Whether it’s kicking single-use products, swapping to green energy suppliers, reducing, reusing, or something else, there’s a definite shift, but how is that actually affecting businesses?
Many of us are still coming to grips with eco issues and mostly think about the waste generated by physical business.
If you’re playing roulette games online, you might not immediately think about the emissions, but it’s a big issue. Online casinos may be at an advantage over physical casinos because they are operating digitally, but that doesn’t mean they can ignore the green push either. Gaming and casinos need to get to work too. Let’s take a look at how that shift is happening.
Energy efficiency
Do you know how much power it can take to run servers and data centers that online casinos depend on?
According to recent data, online games use between 30 MB and 300 MB per hour. Data-intensive or graphically intense games may use more data. For example, online multiplayer games like Fortnite, PUBG Mobile, or Clash of Clans can use between 50 MB and more than 100 MB of data per hour. Data storage and transmission produce an estimated one percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions. For comparison, the aviation industry produces about two percent.
However, casinos are figuring out ways to reduce their carbon footprints so that they’re using less. That tends to involve things like investing in more energy-efficient hardware and using cooling systems.
Checking out carbon offsetting
As recent reports show, carbon offsetting isn’t a magic wand that will fix all of the climate problems. In fact, it may be doing less than expected. But going green overnight isn’t going to happen, and sometimes, we’ve got to compromise. That’s where carbon offsetting is of value. A growing number of online casinos are looking to offsets to address what they can’t reduce.
In 2018, Caesars, which operates online as well as in its hotels and casinos, became the first hospitality/gaming enterprise to set science-based targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The gambling giant committed to reduce its absolute Scopes 1 and 2 emissions by 30 percent by 2025 and 95 percent by 2050 from a 2011 baseline. It also pledged to have 60 percent of its suppliers also implement GHG reduction targets by this year.
“Caesars Entertainment has a well-established track record of successful environmental sustainability progress, and establishing science-based targets further demonstrates our commitment to reducing our impact on the planet,” Mark Frissora, former President and CEO of Caesars Entertainment, said at the time. “We are proud to be part of this global effort.”
The approach works in a few different ways, so you can’t look at the term “carbon offsetting” and know exactly what the company is doing, but you do know they’re doing something. It might mean that they’re planting trees to take CO2 out of the atmosphere, supporting healthy kelp forests in the oceans, or it could be that they’re working on clean energy tech, or anything along these lines.
And if you’re thinking “but how does planting trees really help?” then it’s worth knowing that many offsetting companies have swapped from this kind of scheme to other, more effective options. That said, there are still some major skeptics who reckon we’re just pushing problems around rather than engaging with the real spirit of being eco.
Championing remote work
Since the pandemic, a number of people have shifted to remote work, which reduces commuting emissions, all sorts of waste, and energy use as there’s no longer the need to power and maintain office spaces, and workers aren’t going to be adding to carbon emissions in the drive to and from work. There’s also a better chance of paperwork getting done digitally, instead of using up a bunch of paper and ink – which is only going to get thrown away or recycled in a shockingly short amount of time.
Getting Into green gambling
All of this means that you can still enjoy online gambling by supporting casinos prioritizing an environmental focus. What if you could be investing in new green tech while winning at poker? The way this usually works is with themes/storylines that encourage gamers to be more eco-friendly, and with a percentage of the profits going to championing green causes.
It’s a no-brainer that your favorite online casino’s going to be a darn sight better for the planet than any physical building, no matter what its green credentials, but it’s well worth checking out whether they offer these things. As we all make that major push toward “cleaner and greener,” it’s getting harder for businesses to justify apathy, so look out to see what’s changing.
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