The History of Online Casinos
Casinos have been around for a very long time.
The first ever casino was to be found in Venice called Casino De Venezia which opened its door in 1638. Although Casinos have been around for centuries the birth of online casinos didn’t take place until the mid 90s.
Let’s take a look back at the history of online casinos.
The Beginning
The first online casino which you could actually bet with real money was called InterCasino which was launched in 1996.
This website although was the first to launch was certainly not the last. By 1998 online gambling revenues reached 843 million dollars. That’s a pretty impressive amount for just two years time. 1999 was the year that multi player online gambling was introduced.
This changed things completely as you could gamble and make bets while also socialising with friends and colleagues. This really helped grow the market for online casinos.
Online Casinos Across The World
Different countries took different approaches with their rules and regulations concerning online casinos. It was not fully regulated or even legal in all countries from the launch of the first online casino back in 1996.
For example in Poland online casinos, or kasyno as they are known in the Polish language, strict stringent rules concerning them only came into force in 2009.
It is still illegal to this day in countries such as Cambodia, Qatar, North Korea and Lebanon to use online casinos.
Virtual Casinos to Sports Betting
It didn’t take a long time for online casinos to start offering not just slots, roulettes, black jack and the like to play and bet on but also sports betting.
It was the natural progression for online casinos sites to offer these types of bets alongside their standard gambline games. In 1996 an online casino called InterTops was the first to offer their users sports betting and it was so successful that more and more online casino sites started offering the same service.
The Rise Of Online Poker
It didn’t take long for online casinos to really cash in with online poker. In 1998 Planet Poker was created for the sole use of betting and playing poker online. With the introduction of multiplayer online gaming this excelled playing poker online even further.
As no longer did you need to physically meet with friends to play poker with, as now you could do so virtually using an online casino that offered multiplayer poker games.
As poker is a game of skill not just luck, it has attracted millions of players to try their hand with it online. Some of the biggest poker tournaments now actually take place online, and there is some seriously big money to be won.
Mobile Technology
With the rise of the mobile phones and the advancements they have made in the last ten years with mobile friendly sites and apps, online casinos have grown an even bigger audience.
Now you no longer need to be sitting in front of a computer or laptop to enjoy some online casino action as it’s now available at your fingertips with your phones or tablets.
This is on the one hand a great thing as you can now make a bet or have a quick game whenever and wherever you are. But, this can also mean it’s now easier to get addicted to online gambling, as it’s so readily available to you.
It has certainly helped grow the market place for the online casinos as more and more users are now signing up to all manner of online live casinos to try and make their fortune.
The Future Of Online Casinos
As technology advances at such a quick speed what does the future hold for online casinos. One thing for certain is that more and more people are using their services, so they will be around for a very long time to come.
As for virtual reality, or VR as it’s also known as, some people believe this could be the next big step for online casinos. Imagine playing poker while wearing a VR headset so that you could be in the room with the players you are playing against. Sounds impressive doesn’t it?
In the short term, virtual reality will need to drop in price for it to become more accessible for the general public as currently due to its high selling price, not many people are using it. But as the technology improves and things get cheaper then there will surely be online casinos available using the virtual reality technology.