Casino games have more or less always existed, but in different forms and with different focuses. They’ve changed over time and have traveled with people from different parts of the world. We can see this date back to Ancient Rome, where special buildings were built for games and entertainment. Historians mean that games have existed for as long as humans have been doing any form of cultural activities.
Europes’ first known casino “Ridotto” was built in the year 1638, in Italy. This casino was different compared to the casinos we see today, however, as it was much more focused on card games, dice games, and various forms of lotteries. Today, we have Slots, Live Casinos, Scratching Tickets, Sportsbetting, and so on.
It wasn’t until the start of the 90s that the casinos started establishing themselves online. That’s when it started being legal to play online. From the start, the design was obviously very simple, the programs were slow and the games were very limited. In this article, we’ll be going through some of the histories of online gambling, and the features that it offers for players today!
The history of online Casinos
At the beginning of the Online Casino development, the primary focus was Poker. The Slots was later added as well, a couple of months later. The first casinos used the software Flash to run their games, which needed to be downloaded to the player’s computer, to be able to play. The security was obviously not as good as today’s standards, but they were still pretty good for the time. There have definitely been cases of online casinos being hacked and vulnerable over the years, but that’s nothing we hear about anymore today.
Once the HTML5 technique was released, the overall quality and safety of online casinos were raised enormously. The casinos could now also be enjoyed on smartphones, something we’ve seen a big increase in the last couple of years. More and more players are playing on their mobile devices. Studies have shown that it’s actually over 50%. This means that online casinos have to appeal to the mobile market as well, and thus all the games and features released are completely optimized for mobile use.
To get back to the history of online casinos. Another big step for the development of online casinos was the release of Live Casinos. This was basically just like a TV studio, where the game is broadcasted directly to the players. The players could interact with the dealer, and chat with each other, which was groundbreaking and something we’ve never seen before. When the 90s reached its end, the online casinos had developed at an incredible pace, and they eventually got mainstream for the general public with millions of dollars being turned over every year. Today, it’s a billion-dollar dollar industry and it doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down anytime soon!
Features of Online Gambling today
Today, online casinos have tons of awesome features for all of the players to enjoy. We can start out by discussing the slots. Back in the day, slots were mainly just fruit machines with 3-9 lines and a couple of symbols. There weren’t really any bonuses or any of that sort, and the machines were very simple. These are the slots you’d typically find at the local pizza hut. These days, slots could be compared to modern video games, with flashing animations, tons of interesting features, and cool bonuses.
In the previous segment, we ventured a bit into the Live Casino section, which is another great feature of online gambling today. You don’t need to dress up and leave your house to go to land-based casinos anymore, instead, you can just sit down at the couch and get onto your favorite Live Casino. The feeling is pretty much the same. You can interact with the other players at the table as well as the dealer, and it’s all done from the comfort of your own home.
One of the best features that online crypto casinos bring is the casino bonuses, however. These are the primary attraction for playing online and raises your personal RTP by a ton if you consistently only play with good bonus offers. Bonuses of this sort aren’t available when playing at land-based casinos, and the variance in bonuses today is absolutely insane. You can get everything from normal deposit bonuses, to free spins, free money, no deposit bonuses, cashback bonuses, loyalty program bonuses, you name it. The best part is that pretty much all casinos offer a bonus today, giving you the option to pick and choose between the best ones if you’d like.