it will still be an investment indirectly for the people and government within the city where the casino is located. the casino is usually the ones the offers charity in my country, i suppose its what is going on in other countries as well. its sort of an investment when casinos help the government needs funding.
but now that covid make these traditional casinos helpless, maybe the government will start putting up online license for more casinos to work whnever a pandemic like this strikes again.
But still, the government needs more things to do to start putting up online license because it is not easy to reach every online casino, especially that casino is not in their jurisdiction. Perhaps, the government can contact the hosting provider in their country and ask about cooperation to open their information or data about their customer. By doing that, I think the government will have to know which online gambling website hosts on that provider, so they can start to contact one by one of the gambling site.
But it still better for the government to allow the local casino to operate because the government can easily watch them, and they can do something if the casino breaks their rules. The reopening of the casino will help the employee get works again in that casino, so those employees can have money again because they will get paid from the casino.