The Internet Revolution that began to gather pace in the 1990s has changed every aspect of our society, from the way that we keep in touch with one another, to the way that we do business, and those changes have been particularly evident in the various leisure industries.
Perhaps the most dramatic change has been in the casino industry. Casino gaming goes back several centuries, and indeed people have been gambling on various types of dice and card games since the dawn of time. However, before the internet, casino gambling was largely regarded as a pastime indulged by the wealthy and influential. Playing casino games usually involved having to join a casino, adhere to their dress code, and travel to a physical site.
For fans of slots gaming, these could be played at arcades, but these were sometimes seedy and uninviting places that weren’t particularly attractive to casual players.
By moving online, the casino industry has been able to reinvent itself, from a traditional but fairly stagnant part of the economy to a thriving and dynamic sector. The early online casinos were simple transpositions of land-based casino games, resulting in basic, stripped-down online versions of blackjack and roulette, and a handful of three-reel, fruit-machine-style online slots.
The early casino games were only playable by those who had access to the best desktop PCs, but as computing technology became more affordable, and as broadband and wireless internet began to replace the old-fashioned dial-up technology, there was an explosion of interest in online casino gaming. Some of the game designing companies such as Microgaming, which had been there at the start of the online casino gaming industry, moved away from running their own casino sites and focused on developing games that could take advantage of the latest online technology.
The result has been a surge of creativity and innovation that has led to some truly stunning online casino games, featuring HD graphics, immersive sound, innovative gameplay and, in some cases, enormous jackpots, made possible by linking numerous online games into an online network.
This innovation would simply not have been possible within the traditional casino gaming industry, and has led to an incredible variety of casino and slots games, from high-quality TV and film-licensed slots titles to incredibly realistic reproductions of traditional casino games. The online casino industry is extremely competitive as operators fight for attention and customers.
The online revolution has been enhanced by the development of mobile technology and ever faster online connections. Online casino gamers are now able to play their favourite games wherever and whenever they like, while those who want to enjoy the traditional casino experience without leaving their home can play Live Dealer casino games that authentically recreate real-world casinos.
All of this has transformed the image of a traditional industry from the old-fashioned world of smoky casinos and seedy arcades to something that looks like the future, in which players from every background can try casino gaming for themselves, from the comfort of their own homes. And with new technology such as virtual reality and augmented reality starting to be utilised by casino games developers, the future of online casino gaming promises to be an exciting one.
