Online casinos have become more functional, perfect, and progressive in recent years. The coronavirus has hit many industries, shutting down some of the largest and oldest businesses. Online casinos have become a positive exception. Due to quarantine, many gamblers have switched from land-based institutions to virtual casinos. Some new players have chosen gambling sites to escape their enforced idleness. As more and more people are using their devices for entertainment, developers are looking to provide gamblers with better opportunities, staying ahead of their rivals. A revolutionary upgrade in online casino technology is expected to take place in the next few years. However, in this article, we would like to tell you the history of virtual casino emergence and development.

What Stimulated the Development of Virtual Casinos?

Gambling has appeared thousands of years ago. It is proved that the first gambling establishments originated from Ancient Egypt and the times of the Roman Empire. Over time, there were many transformations, and a few hundred years ago, the first gambling houses began to appear in France. Of course, the largest boom in gambling took place in the United States, where two huge centers were created: Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Technological changes have opened another way for gambling. What was the history of Internet casinos?

In 1963, the American company Bally released the game Money Honey. Just like the Smuggler Cove, it brought a lot of excitement to winners. It was the first classic slot machine with an electromechanical system. This revolutionized the gambling sphere. Soon, video slots began to attract more and more people to the casino, and institutions with slot machines began to appear around the globe. The introduction of jackpots has only increased their popularity.

The development of computers meant that the emergence of electronic games was only a matter of time. In the 80s of the last century, they began to create gambling games for computers. Initially, they served only for fun, but eventually opened the gates for online casinos. In the 1990s, the legal regulations for gambling have begun to change, which has become a great opportunity to create an online casino.

Launch of the First Gambling Platforms

The Internet has become a global tool, thanks to which clients from all over the world have extensive access to gambling. From now on, you can play roulette, poker, and slot machines without leaving your home. Advanced security and software were up-to-date even in the first online casinos, which led many people to play at home.

The first online casinos appeared on the market in the Caribbean region. According to some theories, the first functional casinos appeared in 1994, but officially the first virtual platform is considered to be InterCasino. It was founded in 1996.

The beginning was difficult because the internet connections were not too fast at that time, and the casino had only 18 games of chance at the beginning. Considering that today many casinos have up to 1,000 games, we can talk about rapid development. The creation of the first software development companies had a significant influence on the gambling industry. One of them was Microgaming, which is still one of the leading game developers.

Over time, such companies as Net Entertainment, Playtech, Betsoft Gaming, and many others started to compete with Microgaming. As a result, numerous attractive games began to appear in online casinos over the years, which influenced the development of the entire sphere. In 1998, Internet gambling was estimated to be worth a little bit over $800 million. In a few years, it already cost billions.

In Conclusion

As we mentioned above, the competition between developers and operators is huge: hundreds of the best companies are competing for players. There is nothing more memorable than new games! So get ready to see new game types or old releases with new features and bonuses.

Thousands of online slots now have features that were previously only available on console games. Numerous games have appeared in which not only luck and fortune are important, but also skills and abilities. Now, slots can get the functionality of arcade games, shooters, sports games, or racing. What’s next? Stay tuned for our updates!