Gambling on a plane
In-flight gambling

Gambling lounges may be introduced on airplanes but online gambling is also an impending possibility.

“Please do not approach the blackjack tables until the captain has turned off the fasten seat belt lights.” This is a phrase that air travelers may soon hear after their long-haul flights take off. That is, if two French aviation design studios have their way.

The studios in question are AirJet Designs and Designescence, who have joined forces to design a trendy and luxurious in-flight casino, which they hope will be implemented as a standard feature by airlines.

Although the concept of onboard gambling is not completely new, so far the players have at best been relegated to airport lounges when they wanted to refine their blackjack strategy. The reason for this are the challenges posed by space management and operational requirements, as well as possible safety concerns related to the presence of non-essential electronic equipment on planes.

Some airlines have experimented with the concept of having some gambling on their long distance flights over the past decades, but these attempts proved to be either stillborn or very short-lived. With newer, significantly more spacious planes being constructed, it was only a matter of time before the idea resurfaced.

In addition to luxury casino lounges airlines are also looking at electronic solutions, such as offering mobile casino gambling during flights. It is not about to happen tomorrow, though.

“We don’t have the technology in place at the moment, but hopefully we will in the next two or three years. Really, the reason we don’t currently is based on the expense of the Wi-Fi technology that would be required for it. We’re waiting for the price to come down,” stated very clearly Ryanair’s head of communications, Stephen McNamara.

The availability of Wi-Fi technology has at least one additional impact on the issue. With the advent of in-flight wireless use, players could stay in their seats and use their own portable devices to gamble at any of their preferred online casinos. Analysts point out that any airline considering onboard gambling as a new revenue stream must first figure out how to develop their offerings in harmony with existing gambling channels.

According to McNamara, Ryanair has already considered this and their plan is to offer “closed loop” access, whereby passengers would only be able to go online using the airline’s own system.

Nevertheless, long-haul flights have the distinct advantage of, well… being long. There is only so much time an average transatlantic passenger can spend sleeping, watching movies or playing at iPhone casinos. As there is very little to do on a plane that does not tie a traveler to their seat, a physical gambling lounge (the term “land-based” would be inappropriate in this case) may be a financially sound addition for airlines to have, even at the expense of passenger or crew space.

Aside from technology and finances, the legal hurdles still remain. The biggest among them is US regulation prohibiting gambling in American airspace. Anything can change, of course. As Designescence founder Frederique Houssard put it: “A few years ago, it was forbidden to play games for money on the internet. It was not open then, but now you can play online. A lot of things are changing.”