The concept of online casinos has seen a lot of evolution. It goes back to the 100 A.D when people would use stones and leaves and play their versions of card games. If you played a couple of years ago, when online casinos were beginning to gain popularity, there wasn’t much to them; just a handful of games and 2D graphics.
But now, it comes head to head to with the brick and mortar casinos, and everyday developers are working hard to make the experience as real as it can get. The industry has evolved into a billion-dollar industry now which is only because people like you and me have become addicted to it. Let’s take a trip down memory lane to see how it all started.
The dot com boom
In the late 90s and early 2000s, when the internet companies became privatised, the use of the internet quickly spread all over the world, and a lot of thing became more convenient and accessible. A small company that went by the name of micro-gaming, came up with the concept of making casinos accessible online, and the idea took of quickly, gaining immense popularity very fast.
If we look back in retrospect, the rise of the online casino industry can be owed to the privatization of internet because that is essentially how we are able to access the online casinos in the first place. And it gave the game developers the incentive to develop more and more games for online casinos.
After a while, there were a lot of online casinos emerging and competition with one another until this very day, with the industry becoming a at least worth of $900 million.
How did the online casinos compete?
Towards the end of the 90s, multiple sites had opened up and each website would aim to provide as many features as they could to attract customers back in the day. There were a number of factors on which the online casinos competed on in order to stand out. One of these options was competing with bonuses.
In order to be the choice of online casino for each player, the casinos aimed to target their audience with the help of bonuses and offering them as much as they could, and as frequently as they could. As the war of bonuses became difficult to compete with, because there was only so much the online casinos could do, they started focusing the quantity and quality of games they were offering.
When it came to the local bookies, they had a hard time keeping up with the online casinos and bookmakers, and they could not provide the same features as the online ones, and eventually went out of business in most areas.
Game development
The game developers for these online casinos shifted all of their focus on providing the customers with the best games, and also a huge variety of them to choose. Gone were those days when players had 5-6 games to choose from, that almost every website had as well.
The games were modified in every which way, with the customers getting the ultimate casino experience because they had so much choice to choose from such sites like best-casino-list.com, poker, black jack and more. The game developers also incorporated the use of popular culture characters such as Tomb Raider, Avengers Heroes and more.
Game development also involves improved graphics with better graphics, visuals and sound effects. Prior to the increased popularity of online casinos, most games required Flash players but now it is no longer the case. The games have become more engaging because of their graphics and are aesthetically pleasing and people no longer have to look at chunky pixels.
Mobile gaming
When online gaming initially came out, people still required computers to access the websites in order to play on the online casinos. However, with the upgrade in technology causing every person to have a phone, online casinos have taken over the app stores with different types of online casinos.
This is in fact the most important factor that has allowed the boost in the popularity of online casinos because of how easily accessible they are. The mobile versions not online provide accessibility but also a ton of variety to choose from which people enjoy. According to statistics taken from Statista, mobile gaming accounts for more than 40% of the gambling market in the 2024.
The concept of live dealing
The games did not only stop with simply the variety. As the internet connection got faster, the online casinos also used this development to their advantage by literally bringing the casinos to them.
Soon enough, players had the option of playing live with an actual dealer through their cameras which took the online casino experience to another level. Players were able to play with an actual dealer, as well as with people from different parts of the world with added to the thrill and excitement.
This has allowed for more engagement since people get a response back from who they are playing which makes it more enjoyable to play. Games such as poker and roulette become more interesting to play because you feel like you are actually in the casino, with other people around you who are also watching the game. Moreover, you get to see the facial expressions of the dealer or other player that could also have an impact on your game.
Just like technology has transformed many things, it also did the same thing to online casinos. Technology has caused people to become incredibly reliant on convenience and comfort which is the most important element it added to online casinos. This is perhaps why the betting kiosks and other types of shops went out of business because they could provide the same convenience to their customers as online casinos could. Online casinos have gone through quite different milestones, and we are excited to see how different it will be in the next couple of years.
