Millennials are a generation that grew up alongside the internet, often experiencing the first iterations of digital services during their earliest stages of development, and subsequently watching them evolve and improve over time.
Online gambling is one such example of this; while it has been around since the 1990s, it has only really come into its own in the past decade or so, with the rise of portable play on smartphones making it more popular and accessible than ever.
Likewise the legalization of online gambling in certain regions has helped to legitimize this pastime, rather than leaving it in limbo as a bit of a grey area.
So the question, then, is not whether online gambling is appealing to millennials; the growth of the industry proves this. Instead, it’s which forms and functions of web-based betting are the most appealing to people in this age group?

Breaking down signup bonuses & wagering requirements
Before diving into the kinds of online gambling that are a hit with younger players, it is worth looking at the kinds of practices that operators put in place to tempt new customers to sign up, but which are actually not necessarily ideal from a user’s perspective.
For example, plenty of casino sites and sportsbooks have incentives available when you create an account, often in the form of ‘free’ bets and bonuses. This is all well and good, but if you dig into the small print, you will see that signup bonuses like these usually have a wagering requirement attached.
This is a complex issue, but the short version is that wagering requirements impose a minimum amount that players must bet before they can make a withdrawal. Meanwhile a casino with no wagering requirements means that millennials will be free to withdraw whenever they like, rather than only after some arbitrary minimum has been hit.
Millennials therefore prefer casino operators that are transparent in the way they present their products and bonuses, and so a lack of wagering requirements is definitely a plus point in any site that offers it.
The rise and rise of sports betting
The success of online gambling amongst audiences of all ages has been fuelled in part as a result of the diversity of the activities available. Rather than focusing on one niche, operators are able to grab the attention of people across different generations and with different tastes because casino sites feature lots of different game types and gambling opportunities.
Even so, there is no denying the draw of sports betting, which reached record levels in 2020 and saw literally billions of dollars wagered by players in the places where it can be performed legally.
One aspect of sports betting that gives it the edge over other online gambling activities is that it covers a broad range of sports, so should tick boxes for players whether they prefer football, basketball, baseball or even more obscure or up-and-coming competitive professional pursuits like e-sports.
The accessibility & pop cultural relevance of slots
Online slot machines have been similarly impactful in terms of attracting millennial players to casino sites, especially in the past year when extraneous factors prevented lots of normal leisure activities from taking place.
Web-based slots are one of the best ways to get into online gambling precisely because they are user-friendly, relatively uncomplicated and so far more accessible than something like sports betting, which has a steeper learning curve to overcome.
Slot games can also catch the notice of millennials because they provide a cavalcade of different themes, many of which are inspired by or directly licensed from pop culture. From TV shows and movies to rock stars and beyond, all sorts of properties are represented in the modern slots market, and for a generation weaned on pop culture, this is scintillating stuff.
The potency of poker
Last but not least, poker has presented itself as a form of online gambling with cross-generational appeal, and the internet has certainly helped to perpetuate its popularity amongst millennials.
Not only is it played by plenty of people for fun, but it is also an activity which is regularly found on streaming services like Twitch, because unlike other forms of gambling there is an element of skill involved, hence the reason that professional poker players exist, many of whom got their start online.
So there you have it; online gambling is not without its caveats and complications, but as a pastime for millennials it meets the key requirements of being portable, accessible and pinned to pop culture as a whole.