Gambling has been part of humanity’s history for millennia. Pretty much every civilization had its own games of chance, from casting lots in ancient Egypt to lotteries and card games in China. Gambling has been with us across the centuries, across wars, crises, plagues, and periods of peace, growth, and abundance. And, a little over two decades ago, it became part of our (developing) digital lives.
They have come a long way
The first online casinos were launched in the mid-1990s, at a time when the internet was still in its infancy – this says a lot about how much people love games of chance. Taking a look at the games at the time, then at https://www.luckycreekcasino.org with its hundreds of games running on pretty much every platform shows you just how far the industry has gone: from a handful of basic Java games, it has grown to hundreds, maybe thousands of cross-platform ones, from basic interactive pieces of software built using Flash they have gone to embracing HTML5 and combining streaming and digital interactions in a totally unique way.
Always embracing the new
Casino game developers were always at the forefront of embracing new technologies and platforms, doing their best to offer their potential customers what they are looking for, no matter the device they were using.
The first mobile casino games running on feature phones were launched in the mid-2000s, at a time when mobile internet was expensive, and the screens were small. Admittedly, it was a bit ahead of its time. Smartphones then opened up a new frontier for casino games to conquer – despite the resistance of software distribution channels, mobile gambling has become the new norm.
But smartphones were not the only devices casino game developers have tried to conquer over the last decade. One of them – Microgaming, a company based in the UK – has proven to be a true groundbreaker in this area, launching its first smartwatch slot machine (running on Android Wear) in the mid-2010s, and the first truly immersive virtual reality casino platform around the same time, using the freshly released Oculus SDK, combining it with an also fresh Magic Leap controller for seamless interaction with the software. As you might expect, the company pocketed pretty much every industry award at the time.
What’s to come
For an industry as young as online gambling, there are many potential directions to explore. For now, the most widely used types of games are “traditional” video games run by random number generators, and “live dealer” games combining streaming and a digital layer, making them as accessible and interactive as possible.
On the one hand, the games themselves will probably evolve to meet the needs of new generations of players, adding more control and interaction to the mix. On the other hand, new formats will emerge in all areas, integrating emerging technologies like virtual reality, mixed reality, and others, to offer an even more immersive and entertaining experience and integrate further into our digital lives.
