The evolution of Online Casino Culture
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Gambling and casino games have changed or let’s say have evolved over the past two decades. Both land-based and online casinos offer different content that looks more polished from a technical point of view. Moreover, going digital definitely opened up new possibilities in terms of monetization and game design. It is one of the fastest-growing industries now and more countries, including the states in the US, are legalizing online gambling. Here we will focus mainly on online casinos, and talk about how they started out and how they evolved over the years.
First Online Casino
Although online casinos have started to generate momentum over the past decade, the very first online casino was created back in 1994. It was created by now famous software company Microgaming, but it wasn’t really popular. At that time the available hardware didn’t allow for flashy aesthetics and 3D graphics like the ones we have today. There were some additional hurdles for online casino sites to become popular.
A key ingredient to online casinos is an internet connection, and even if it was available in the 90s’ it took another decade before we had access to wi-fi. Then new versions of internet connections also became available like 3G, 4G, and today we even have 5G. Each of these advancements brought about a more stable, and affordable connection. So, it’s not that people didn’t like the first online casino, it’s just that the infrastructure for its boom wasn’t there.
New Software and Hardware Capabilities
One of the main game changers in the entire entertainment industry was definitely smartphones. It didn’t take long for new tech companies to start exclusively focusing on developing phone games, and for web developers to create sites and themes that are compatible with mobile devices. If you look at all of the online casino sites that are available in Canada and the rest of the world, you will see that they all have either an app or are simply made to work smoothly on mobile. Moreover, the new and improved capabilities opened up a lot of flexibility in terms of design.
The games and animations looked better, the original or traditional slot games were made different and more unique. They had different paylines, symbols that interact with one another, and bonus rounds that change how the whole experience looks and feels.
Payment Technology
Even with all of the new gaming tech, the online casinos still didn’t realize their full potential. This is because the world of online payments was still in development, and the infrastructure that exists today wasn’t there yet. Moreover, people weren’t really keen on trusting the websites that require their credit card numbers or bank account information. So, it took some time before we started trusting this new tech.
Luckily, some of the companies that were starting out at that time managed to win the trust of the users, and the whole banking system has undergone a digital revolution. Today, we have lots of efficient and safe payment methods that are used for online gambling. Moreover, we have cryptocurrencies which are one of the latest trends in this industry and really the most efficient and safest way to handle online transfers.
Live Games
Finally, we got to a point where both internet and server capabilities evolved enough to support streaming. This opened up doors for live dealer games. This is content where players can interact with live dealers in a remote room, and play some of the iconic casino games online while feeling like they are in an actual casino. It’s not exactly the same of course, but it is definitely more authentic. This also made online casinos more viable businesses, as now they are offering different positions and creating more jobs.
VR
Although this tech is still relatively new, there are a few VR casinos that look cool. The way things currently stand, there is no overwhelming audience that wants to play this type of content, but if we learned anything it’s that the tech will get more followers as it continues to evolve. So, we might see more online casinos with complete virtual environments that can be accessed using VR tech.
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