Since casino’s went online circa 1994, player numbers have jumped enormously, from 50 million to just under 500 billion globally. One can’t deny the endless possibilities that now exist for casinos on such a vast platform making it available all across the planet anywhere and at any time.
Here’s a brief history of online casinos for anyone who is looking at utilizing its seemingly unlimited potential!
Early Beginnings
The mid-90’s to early 2000’s saw the first big growth and development of online casinos. 1994 was a busy year for online casino’s and several casinos opened their ‘doors’.
But for that to happen first a few aspects had to be in place in order for them to do so:
First someone needed to legalize it.
It was on a Caribbean island that the first formal license was established to allow casino companies to operate online. Antigua and Barbuda established the Fair Trade and Processing act for this purpose.
Software development that would host these online casinos.
Microgaming is said to have created the first online gambling software that would make it possible for casinos to operate online, and they were also of the first to launch online casino’s in this year.
Safe Transactions to accept and pay large sums of money:
Ensuring that transactions remained safe and secure was something that would keep online casino’s successful and it fell to a company known as Cryptologic to create just the program with which to do so.
Finally, in order to regulate https://onlinerouletteaustralia.biz/american/ online casinos, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission from the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake, Canada, was established.
In the next several years from 1995 onwards, the trajectory of online casino’s would grow exponentially and the legalities, software development and transactional methods would shift and grow as well. Only 5 years after the first casino was launched, multiplayer aspects were developed and introduced opening the casinos to a global interactive community. Prior to that online Poker was launched bringing the online gaming in to a new dimension altogether.
Internet speed growth, along with internet and technology accessibility lent deeply to this growth and the revenue generated would also grow beyond what anyone could imagine. Within a couple of years, the online casinos would be bringing in a billion dollars, and by 2020 it is sitting in the vicinity of 4.5 billion dollars – despite issues around legality especially in the US.
Legal Battles
In the mid 2000’s the US passed the Unlawful Internet Gaming Act (UIGEA) which made it illegal to deposit and withdraw funds to and from an online gambling site. Australia also instituted the Interactive Gambling Moratorium Act as international concerns over online gaming’s open accessibility rose.
The UK and Europe particularly would continue to grow during these decades, and it was only in 2013 Nevada and New Jersey legalized online gambling.
The growth of the telecommunications and other technology’s industry has meant that one can access casino’s and gambling from just about anywhere: the office, the bus, during recess and even in the bathroom. Casino’s are now literally at your fingertips making it a rather exciting area to be involved in.