Long gone are the days when your only option for a night of poker was to round up your buddies and gather around a felt table in someone’s basement or garage. The advent of the internet and advancements in technology have taken gambling out of smoky back rooms and seedy alleyways and put it right at our fingertips – no travel or uncomfortable plastic chairs required.
In just a few decades, gambling online, for example at LeoVegas, has ballooned from a niche activity into a multi-billion dollar industry encompassing everything from online poker to virtual reality casinos. Let’s take a look back at the major developments that have led us here.
Early Days of Online Gambling: Primitive But Promising
While the concept of gambling over the internet can be traced back to the early 1990s, online casinos didn’t really gain mainstream traction until the latter half of the decade. In 1994, Antigua and Barbuda passed the Free Trade & Processing Act, allowing licenses to be granted for the opening of online casinos. Just two years later, the first online casino software was developed by Microgaming.
Early online casinos were quite primitive compared to what we see today. Slow dial-up connections meant very basic graphics and gameplay. However, despite their aesthetic shortcomings, these first internet gambling sites showed promise for the future. More countries began issuing licenses, software capabilities improved, and by 1998 there were over 200 online gambling sites in operation.
Poker Boom – Online Gambling Hits the Mainstream
The early 2000s brought massive advancements in internet speeds and online payment processing. As connectivity improved, so did the offerings of internet casinos. Table games, slots, sports betting and more were now available with the click of a mouse.
However, no single event was more instrumental to the popularization of online gambling than the poker boom of the mid-2000s. The introduction of hole-card cameras to televised poker allowed viewers to see players’ cards, dramatically increasing the drama and helping novice players understand the game.
Amateur Chris Moneymaker’s shocking 2003 World Series of Poker win after qualifying through an online satellite tournament showed that anyone could become a poker star. By 2005, an estimated $60 million dollars was being wagered daily across the major online poker sites.
Rapid Proliferation of Online Casinos
Thanks in large part to the momentum generated by online poker, by 2010, the internet gambling industry was valued at nearly $30 billion annually. Thousands of sites were operating, offering every game imaginable.
Advancements in live-dealer and streaming technology also allowed players to enjoy a more social experience similar to being in a physical casino. Popular consensus seemed to be that internet gambling was here to stay.
However, the industry received a major setback in 2011 when the United States Justice Department closed down and blacklisted the three largest online poker sites operating in the US. This crackdown sent shockwaves through the industry. While many sites continued operating legally overseas, internet gambling remained in legal limbo in America.
Virtual Reality – The Next Frontier of Online Gambling
After nearly a decade in uncertainty, the US Supreme Court overturned the federal ban on sports betting in 2018. This paved the way for states to begin issuing their own sports gambling licenses. Online casino and poker legislation continues advancing across the country as well.
And now, just when it seemed the industry had peaked, new virtual reality technology stands poised to take internet gambling to astonishing new heights. VR headset ownership has been steadily rising, and several software developers are already experimenting with online casinos and poker rooms in virtual reality.
Early offerings show tremendous promise in providing an immersive digital experience that truly replicates the atmosphere of being inside a real casino. Users can interact with games, players, and even live dealers while seeing and hearing everything in a fully rendered 3D environment.
As VR hardware and software improves over the next several years, expect the technology to play a major role in the continued development of the multi-billion dollar online gambling industry.
Conclusion
It’s been quite the wild ride from basement poker nights to live-streamed tables and fully virtual casinos. While internet gambling certainly still faces challenges when it comes to legislation and public perception, its short history shows a remarkable ability to evolve with the times. One can only imagine what the next innovation will bring. Perhaps a fully haptic experience? Personalized AI dealers in your own virtual casino? In an industry as unpredictable as gambling itself, just about anything could be the next winning hand.
So gather up your friends, log in to your favorite online casino, and raise your glasses – here’s to the future of internet gambling! Where we’ll be placing our bets next is anyone’s guess. But for now, the technology behind virtual reality provides seemingly endless possibilities.
