The History of Virtual Gambling

Casino bonuses no deposit, modern gaming platforms, a wide range of payment options – nowadays most virtual casinos offer these things. But in the 90s, they were entirely different from the ones we can find today. Internet gambling has become available to almost everyone and many changes have been made.

Introduction

Without a doubt, the internet is one of the greatest inventions in our history. It’s an infinite source of information and entertainment and there are also many ways to earn money online. Nowadays, life without the internet seems impossible for most of us. It has become an important part of our daily life and a lot of industries depend on it. One of them is the gambling industry and the internet has drastically improved it. Gambling has been around for many centuries, but a big change occurred almost 25 years ago, in 1994. That year, the first virtual casino started operating. It looked nothing like the ones we can see today, but back then it was something new and groundbreaking. Ever since then, the online gambling industry has been evolving and today we have countless gambling sites. Thanks to virtual casinos, gambling has become accessible to nearly everyone. Now people can gamble without leaving the comfort of their own home. It’s easy and convenient, especially for those who don’t live close to a casino complex. From our point of view, the things will continue to get better. Soon, we will see virtual reality casinos, more gambling sites, and even better graphics. The number of players will also grow and online gambling will probably become an everyday thing for even more people. We just need to wait for it to happen.  

1994, 1996 and 1997

The first virtual casinos started operating in 1994 when Antigua and Barbuda passed their famous Free Trade and Processing act. The same year Microgaming was founded. This small Caribbean country granted licenses to many online casinos and they’re greatly responsible for the situation we have today. Another important year in the history of virtual gambling is 1996. That year, the well-known Kahnawake Gaming Commission was established. In the 90s, they issued licenses to a significant number of online casinos. This commision is still present today and they play a huge role in the gambling world. In 1996 there were only about fifteen gambling sites and by the end of 1997, over two hundred of them had started operating. This included virtual casinos, websites for poker as well as for sports betting. Many of the casinos that were established back then are still active today and have thousands of loyal players.

Sports Betting

Sports betting had been popular for decades before the first online platform was opened. But when it finally happened, everything became different. Exactly 22 years ago, InterTops became the world’s very first sports betting site. Shortly after, numerous bookmakers made their own platforms and this type of gambling took off. The competition was stiff and it was difficult to survive on the market. Many changes and improvement have occurred in the last 22 years, such as peer-to-peer betting and some others. Nowadays, it remains one of the most popular forms of gambling. The future seems bright and it’ll only become better.

Mobile Phones and Cryptocurrencies

These two inventions have really revolutionized the online gambling industry. The majority of virtual casinos have its own mobile platform and many of them support different cryptocurrencies. Mobile gaming is very convenient and now players can gamble even when they’re far away from home. Most players don’t even want to consider playing at casinos that don’t offer a mobile version. Bitcoin was the first one to be accepted. It happened in 2014 and since then a few other cryptocurrencies have become accepted at virtual casinos. In the future, all virtual casinos will accept them as a payment method, it’s just a matter of time.  

The History of Online Poker

On the first day of 1998, Planet Poker started operating. It was the very first website where you could play poker online. The internet connection was poor back then and the site often had technical issues. In spite of that, thousands of players played there. This site didn’t last long and very soon other similar websites started working. They were significantly better and we can find some of them today. The best sites that started operating around that time are Paradise Poker, Partypoker, and PokerStars. These sites had more modern platforms and better servers. This means they were able to welcome thousands of players at the same time, without frequent issues. During the last decade, online poker has become even more popular. You can play it at numerous virtual casinos and on the sites that specialize in online poker. The choices and the gaming experience are now better than ever.