Online gambling was born thanks to the nurturing of one of the best forms of  the technology mankind has ever created, the internet. But to truly understand the influence of technology on gambling, one must go back and think about how people have viewed gambling since the beginning of time. 

It’s in History!

Historically, gambling was practiced before writing was even invented. We’re talking about thousands of years ago. Taking a risk has always been in our human nature. After all, adrenaline is programmed to be released in the brain during risks and stays in the bloodstream a bit after the risk or obstacle has been neutralized. And we all know how much of a high we can get from adrenaline!

The Paleolithic period, commonly known as the stone age, is believed to be have been the first era in which gambling was practiced. The six-sided dice that are still common to this day are believed to have been invented in Mesopotamia 5 thousand years ago. Gambling houses were so common in 1,000 BC China that people were allowed to bet on lotto, dominoes, and were even animals fights. The most relevant gambling device which was playing cards was first seen in China in the 9th century. 8 centuries later, gambling was becoming all the rage with the first ancient roots of poker being played all over 17th century Persia. Europe wasn’t idle as the first legal western casino was opened in Venice in 1638. It took a while for gambling to catch on in the United Kingdom. In 1790, the first official bookmaking services were open for business, it was all about sports gambling, specifically betting on horse racing matches. It took a while for Canada to stop considering gambling as a vice that was socially unaccepted; the first legal casino was opened in 1989.

The history of gambling is as colorful as the history of mankind itself. Online gambling is a different story, as its roots lie in expanding and pushing the envelope. Once the internet was a commercial commodity available to the public, a Caribbean nation didn’t hesitate to regulate online gambling laws. The Free Trade and Processing Act allowed them to grant licenses that opened the door for online casinos to come into existence. The first online casino opened in 1996. It was called InterCasino and was considered the spark that has led to the creation of a digital industry worth at least $50 billion today. Intercasino is still in operation today and has paid out at least $3 billion in winnings alone. The development and innovation in online gambling were mainly linked to the fortifications in online security that allowed safe transactions to be made since without transactions there would be no revenue to push the envelope further. By 1996 there were 15 online casinos in practice, and that number jumped to 200 in only a year once industry leaders realized the true potential of online gambling. 

Online gambling was a brand-new industry that came to be worth almost a billion after only two years; to not see its potential would be very hard even if you wanted to. Technology is the steam behind the momentum of online casinos (as stated on https://www.bingosweets.com), and as long as online gambling is being backed by development and innovation in technology there would be no stopping of this train. 

Now that we know where both came from, here are the 5 facts you must know about the relation between technology and online casinos.

Design and Variety

The freedom gained by unshackling the gambling experience from its physical roots and planting it in an ecosystem where it’s operating in more than one dimension is efficiently taken care for by online casinos. The effort put into designing new games is at its peak with online casinos pouring their resources to rival land based casinos efficiently and sway the restrictive general opinion of old-school gamblers. Online casinos aren’t just using the latest programming languages and design platforms to create new mesmerizing games, but also to redefine genres of already existing games by adding a postmodern touch that takes it to a whole new level. Incorporating esports into the gambling mix has shown how ready online casinos are ready to take it to the next level. Esports is like the modern equivalent of horse racing with millions of people betting on players playing in virtual worlds.

The aesthetic appeal of gambling games nowadays can make anyone want to gamble, and not just for the thrill of winning money, but also for all the fun that can be had with great visuals and efficient mechanics. You can play poker at any land based casino, and it will still probably be the exact same experience. Playing poker at an online casino can give you a whole fresh new look where you can play in different atmospheres and with mechanics that are completely alien to traditional poker games. As can be proven by a visit to Clubvip777, a single online casino can have over 3,000 different games for gamblers to choose from. The variety of different games can hardly be ever boring, especially when we’re talking about thousands upon thousands of new games and different designs.

Mobile Gaming

The mobile gaming industry controls about 50% of the whole gaming market worldwide. If you’re not an old-school gamer, this statistic may not sound that impressive. The total worldwide video game market was worth about $20 billion in 1994, way before mobile gaming was even a thing. In 2017, the total worth of the video game industry was around $100 billion. The mobile gaming sector alone generated $46 billion. As you can see mobile gaming took over almost half of the market in less than a decade. Online gambling was getting by when the only online gambling platform was computer-based, but the true rise of online gambling in terms of popularity and revenue was only after the introduction of new technologies that allowed mobile gaming to come into existence, like on this sports betting platform.

One of the strongest appeals of online gambling is the convenience, so it’s only natural that gambling on a smartphone has dominated the market of online casinos. You first needed to be at home or had a laptop with you in a convenient place to be able to gamble online. Now, you can have a quick slot game while waiting for your Uber. The development of apps has allowed for literally any casino game to be played on your smartphone with impressive mechanics nailed down to the most specific details. Online casinos aren’t missing any chance they get to whip out their own apps to increase their popularity metrics.

Digital Payment

One of the core concepts behind online casinos is the ability to gamble with money without using tokens or cash. In a land-based casino, you can just use any amount of money and trade it for tokens or chips to play with. Online casinos had to find a way to ensure that there is a way to circumvent this restriction to be able to create cash flow. Using cashless technologies like debit cards, credit cards, PayPal, cryptocurrency and many more have allowed online casinos to be able to simulate the exact same experience of a land-based casino when it comes to making and receiving payments. Some online casinos are taking it up a notch, and they’re creating cryptocurrency tokens that can be gambled with; using block chain technology. Different payment options are making transactions seamless and almost instant so gamblers can get a sense of the adrenaline rush they get in a land-based casino as they go on gambling frenzies.

Cryptocurrencies are quite popular due to their safety in countries or states where it’s illegal to gamble or bet on sports online. Since cryptocurrencies like bitcoin make it hard to trace their owner, a lot of online casinos are taking advantage of this technology to expand their market globally. Whole markets that are basically untapped due to governmental restrictions on online gambling are finally able to gamble freely thanks to block chain technologies. This is also considered a security-efficient technology as it allows for gambling anonymously without risking raising any red flags in restricted locations. 

Security and Customer Service

Since online casinos are in a digital or cyber domain, they may be under a bigger threat than land based casinos when you compare the frequency of attacks on their security. Digital information can be very sensitive, and if there’s not enough attention paid to secure it, it’s quite easy to steal it or use it for malicious purposes. The internet has popularized the era of information, but it’s also a double-edged weapon as black hat hackers are constantly trying to steal that information. The evolution of secure systems, back-end fortifications, and private servers has allowed online casinos to thrive without having to feel the pressure of the constant threat. Some online casinos even use artificial intelligence to identify suspicious patterns that could compromise the well-being of the system.

Customer service almost always operates 24/7 in most of the online casinos. The accessibility provided by digital platforms like call centers, live chat, and emails are making people feel safer as they know they’re gambling in a safe environment with support easily and instantaneously offered whenever there is a problem. While technology has facilitated the resolution of many problems that hindered online gambling, it can sometimes create confusion with new customers. This is why a lot of online casinos are using technology to also streamline troubleshooting problems efficiently.

Virtual and Augmented Realities

Virtual reality is taking the gaming world by storm. Most industries know that the future lies in virtual reality, and they’ve known so for years as the amount of research and effort poured into its development is simply massive. Virtual reality means being able to integrate a player’s senses in a program. Wearing advanced optical glasses with sophisticated engines inside them can seamlessly integrate a player into a completely different world. Online casinos know the potential of virtual reality thanks to the popularity of live casinos. Live casinos have existed for a while, and they’ve depended on cameras available on your smartphone or computer. You could see a real dealer standing at the real table dealing your cards; interactions are in real-time to simulate the land based casino experience. Virtual reality is taking this a step further where you can find yourself in the casino itself instead of simply watching it from a screen.

A bit similar to virtual reality, augmented reality is used by both online and land based casinos. We’ve seen a lot of augmented reality games and applications that use the built-in cameras in smartphones that overlay digital components onto the real surroundings. This process creates a hybrid screen that you interact with, for example, a poker table with cards virtually laid on top. Online casinos are using augmented reality to add an extra virtual dimension that gamblers can interact with. The best thing about augmented reality is it that can be used to collect relevant information that is processed using AI to improve it even further. Land based casinos are also experimenting using augmented reality by setting up an environment where it can conveniently and efficiently overlay elements in it as a nod to the futuristic age we’re now entering.

It can easily be seen that online gambling has begun the process of taking over traditional gambling markets. People now more appreciate technology and the convenience it provides; it’s hard to say no digital solutions that can make your life easier and enable you to have more fun. Even governments are starting to understand the impact of technology on online gambling by reducing the restrictive legislative environment surrounding online casinos. Smartphones can be said to be the key element in the progression of online gambling and enabling it to become a more evolved industry. Gambling has gained a lot of bad reputation in the past couple of centuries, but it seems that that won’t stop the technological advances from fixing the common misconceptions surrounding gambling as a whole. Even land based casinos can see how online casinos are posing a risk to their long-established institutes and are finally agreeing to incorporate technology into their infrastructure to stay in the game.