What do you think about this claim? Is he right or wrong?
Gamblers can't go to casinos because of lockdowns. They don't want to be idle and they always want to gamble thus, they tried to gamble online and that's the start of popularity of online gambling.
It's definitely true that the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact and made online gambling more popular. However, it's also worth noting that online gambling was already becoming more popular before the pandemic because of technology and internet access.
Let's look, for example, at the google trends of the last 5 years for terms like "Gambling" and "Online Casino":
There's no denying that there was a big spike in interest during the first year of the pandemic, but it's clear that people were already starting to turn to online gambling more and more. And, it's likely that this trend will continue even after things go back to normal.