GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 9 - June 2009

gender marketing Does the concept “Men are fromMars, Women are from Venus” also apply in the gamblingmarket? GPWA Times | Gender Marketing ByLindaNiskanen H istoricallygamingand gamblingareverymale dominated areas both in the online and the offline arenas. Lately, the debates surrounding this gap have focused on why women do notplaygamesandgamble like the mendo.And iftheydoplay,what is the level ofdifferentiationbetween the games and forms of gambling that appeal to women versus the ones thatappeal tomen. In the current market, and espe- cially among gambling products, bingo is the only product that has more women playing than men. Women also make up the demo- graphic group that is currently growingthemost.Thequestions is: arewomen just not that interested ingamingatall? Anddoes the fact thatmenwere theoneswhodevel- oped the games play a part in the fact thatmostgamblingcommuni- ties–bothofflineandonline–are maledominated?Does theconcept of “Men are fromMars, Women are fromVenus” apply to thegam- ingworldaswell? Current stateof the femaleaudience Today’s world of online gam- ing and gambling is seeing a complete change in demograph- ics. Nowadays the online casual gaming crowd consists of 65% women who are actually 30 years of age or older and appre- ciate games with a combination of strategy and a casual nature. While the most common games are still puzzles, brainteasers and other similar games, women are moving moreandmore into the same game sites where men have been the pre- dominant gender. This time spent online com- binedwith the explosive pop- ularity that Web 2.0 features and social networks have seen during the last few years is changing theway the Inter- net is used and the way people are interact- ing online. Nowadays both men andwomen do not just log on in search for the solitaire gaming experience, but for shared enter- tainment and socializing online, something that has made