The Evolution of Virtual Gambling

As with most technological advancements, it’s difficult to remember a time when we were without them – even if that time was a mere few years ago! And online gambling is no different. With the plethora of online casinos and online gambling sites now available worldwide, it’s easier than ever to enjoy classic casino games without having to set foot in an actual casino.

But where did it begin? How did online casinos become so popular? Online gambling websites first sprung up way back in the mid 90s. Then, in 1994 the Caribbean country of Antigua and Barbuda passed a law that allowed licenses to companies who applied to open online casinos. It was also in 1994 that the very first software provider was founded for online gambling – called Microgaming. Microgaming still run software that is very popular and used by many online gambling websites as the power behind their poker rooms and online casinos.

It’s not totally clear which was the very first online casino to accept bets, but popular consensus seems to think it’s InterCasino, which sprang up in 1996. It’s also possible that it was Microgaming’s very own Gaming Club, which still to this day offers poker and casino software and is licensed by Gibraltar’s government.

In 1996 the Kahanawake Gaming Commission was set up in Canada. This commission regulates online gaming and issues licenses to many of the worldwide online casinos and online poker rooms now in existence. Obviously back then there was no WiFi and there were definitely problems with connectivity in the early days, but it’s reported that in 1998 online gambling generated almost $835 million, so it was doing OK even with a slow internet speed and dodgy bandwidth problems!

Intertops opened the very first online sportsbook to people who wanted to gamble on sports, also in 1996. They had been offering the same service over the phone since the early 80s and are still going strong even today, across 180 countries.

Playing online poker against other players was launched by Planet Poker in 1998, although they never managed to become completely successful. There was clearly a gap left in the market as Paradise Poker opened in 1999, followed by PokerStars and Party Poker in 2001. All of these three poker sites use their own software to increase the amount of players who could play over dial up and the early proponents of broadband internet connections.

Party Poker, owned by Party Gaming became the largest online poker room in the world, although it has now been overtaken by Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars in terms of the sheer numbers of people who are playing online.

There were various legal disputes regarding cross border online gambling, with all online gambling companies closing their collective doors to US residents in 2006. This was revoked pretty swiftly in all but a few states where online gambling remained illegal.

Since then legislation has come into force in Europe and across the world allowing online gambling licensing services and many more sites have sprung up, including Winagames, SportingBet, Ladbrokes and many others. So it’s all completely legal and extremely popular with more and more people enjoying being able to gamble over at the site of their choice. Of course, now we have super fast WiFi and much more reliable internet, it’s rare for any of the sites to encounter problems even when it comes to handling millions of users worldwide.

If you haven’t tried online gambling yet but fancy flexing your online poker muscles, you’ll find plenty of people willing to play with you wherever you choose. Secure payment portals are, of course, in place so your personal and financial details will always be safe and you can experience all the thrills of a Las Vegas casino experience without even getting up from the couch – doesn’t get much better than that!

Tags: online games

Category: Sci Tech