Our reliability on the World Wide Web for a majority of our daily tasks is undeniable. The internet has revolutionized our lives and gained a permanent place in every nook and cranny of our casual routine. With the innovation of the internet, several industries acquired a new outlook towards their way of working. One of these industries is gambling. Internet laid the foundation for online gambling. Started way back in 1996, with more people preferring gambling from the convenience of their home, online gambling holds a major stake in the entire gambling market now.
How was Online Gambling Started?
The year 1994
The internet gained complete commercialization in the year 1994. Witnessing the commercialization of the internet, the Caribbean country of Barbuda and Antigua guaranteed its place in history by becoming the first nation to pass regulations for online gambling and giving it a legal stature. The Free Trading and Processing Act was passed through which, the nation initiated the granting of legal licenses to organizations that expressed their desire to provide online gambling services to the people. The first-ever to launch was Gaming Club Casino you can read onlinecasinos.net review here. Gaming Club is, in fact, still in business after all these years.
The year 1996
However, taking into account the challenges of opening an online casino, it took two more years for the 2nd online casino to launch. In 1996, the 2nd online casino, going by the name of InterCasino was constituted. It remains a big name in the field of online gambling now as well. The InterCasino utilized the services of Cryptologic, a pioneer in the field of software ensuring secure online financial transactions, to ensure safe and secure online transactions for the customers participating in online gambling. However, the events in 1996 don’t end here. The Mohawk Territory Kahnawake Gaming Commission was constituted in 1996 that acted as a regulatory authority for poker rooms and online casinos.
If you participate in online gambling, you must know about NetEnt and Microgaming, the two extremely successful developers behind several of the currently existing online casino games including slots, branded games, live dealer games, progressive jackpots, and other table & card games. The launch of NetEnt and Microgaming grant historic status to the year 1996 in the field of online gambling. Much of the modern online gambling industry that we see today had its foundation laid down in 1996.
The year 1998
The year 1998 witnessed the launch of the first poker room in the field of online gambling. Planet Poker was the first website to provide the facility of online poker.
The year 1999
Up till now, there was no interaction among the participants in online gambling making the entire process quite monotonous. Moreover, people who liked the social interaction while gambling in land-based casinos stayed away from online gambling. However, in the year 1999, this was changed by the introduction of multi-player gaming. Multi-player gaming bridged the gap between land-based casinos and online gambling by enabling participants to gamble online as well as interact with other participants. Live dealer games are the best example of multi-player gaming wherein a player can interact with the dealer as well as other players.
After the advent of multiplayer gaming, there was a fourfold increase in the popularity of online gambling with more and more gambling enthusiasts coming under its hood.
Moreover, in 1999, a better poker website going by the name of Paradise Poker was launched and it worked way better than Planet Poker. The crazily good part was that Paradise Poker enabled players to play several versions of Poker like Seven-Card Stud, H.O.R.S.E, 2-7 Triple Draw, Texas Hold’Em, and more. A good majority of the online gambling enthusiasts were hooked to the website.
The year 2003
Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker 2003, taking home a winning amount of $2.5 million. Witnessing Chris claiming the grand prize, everyone around the world started to dream big. As a result, people were glued to the online poker websites taking the popularity of online gambling and online poker websites to and beyond the moon.
The advent of Mobile Casinos
Up till now, online gambling was limited to PCs. However, with the soaring advancement and popularity of tablets and mobile phones, the need for Mobile Casinos was felt.
Gambling enthusiasts who are stuck in their daily routine cannot afford to go to a casino every day or each week. This problem was solved by the advent of online gambling. However, later the need was felt to make online gambling more portable as the trend was fast changing from PCs to mobile phones or tablets. Keeping with the trend, a large number of online gambling websites who were limited to PCs or desktops launched their mobile-optimized versions as well in the early 2000s. This meant that those interested to gamble online can participate from anywhere provided they have a good internet connection running on their smartphones. As the capability of mobile phones grew, mobile casinos also went through several advancements making it more convenient and comfortable to gamble from your smartphone rather than glaring on a PC screen.
Two events; the launch of multi-player gaming and the advent of mobile casinos, changed the face of online gambling forever. Nowadays, more people are interested in gambling online rather than going all the way to a land-based casino.
Conclusion – The Future of Online Gambling
With the launch of 100% artificial intelligence-built Omnia Casino in 2018, the future of online gambling is for all to see. Also, virtual reality is going to play an integral part in online gambling allowing the players to feel like they are a part of a gambling environment with which they can interact. The first-ever virtual reality casino SlotsMillion is already launched in 2016. It is most likely for virtual reality gambling to become extremely popular among the masses.
Overall, the future of the online gambling industry is extremely bright with the number of players expected to double by early 2025. Happy Gambling!