Online casinos have existed since the mid-1990s. Yet, they are gaining unprecedented traction due to the growing trend of worldwide regions authorizing their operation. In the US, government-approved gambling sites were not a thing until 2013, when New Jersey decided to regulate such platforms following a 2011 DOJ interpretation of the 1961 Wire Act, which prohibited their functioning on a federal level in the US.
Delaware, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Connecticut have also legalized these hubs, allowing companies to run them from within their borders. Before this occurred, Americans enjoyed games of chance remotely at offshore platforms, which they still can. However, these brands still cannot advertise their services in the United States through conventional means.
Europe has been ahead of the curve as far as this pastime goes, as many of the Old Continent’s most developed nations regulated gaming and betting fun over the Internet in the 2000s and early 2010s. In 2021, Germany and the Netherlands joined this society, proving that soon, almost every Western territory will openly accept this entertainment form as a common one, as experts estimate that global marketing will pull in annual revenues of $133 billion by 2029. Below, we get into how we got into this hobby and how it became popular among Americans.
The Establishment of Digital Entertainment in the Modern World
In this age, people can perform a wide array of tasks remotely. Previously, you had to go to a bank to send money. Now, everyone can do this on their phones. The massive adoption and dependability of tech have also caused the entertainment landscape to shift dramatically, moving away from what one would consider traditional means of fun to online ones.
The instant availability of things and growing demand for personalized content have made humans impatient and crave high levels of flexibility. That has made many gamblers play on their smartphones, which became possible in the early 2000s, with Intertops, now Everygame, as the first platform to accept mobile wagers in 2001. That was when Web gambling was dominated by top trending poker websites, an entertainment genre birthed in 1998 through the Planet Poker platform.
Right now, it is believed that over 176 million people actively gamble on the Web, with projections putting this figure at 290 million by 2029. This shows how quickly people are willing to adopt this entertainment method if it is convenient and that most of the general public now sees online casinos as super reliable and far less taboo than ever before.
The Creation of New Gaming Categories
In the 1990s and for much of the 2000s, online gamblers stuck to playing slots and software-powered table games. In 2003, Isle of Man provider Playtech tested live casino gaming via Asian-centric studios that pioneered this gambling technology. At the end of the 2000s, Riga-based Evolution evolved the live dealer concept, upping production values, improving streaming lag, and dabbling in creating novel variations of table classics.
In 2017, Evolution came out with Dream Catcher, a new take on the Big Six wheel game, and trailblazed a new genre, which many now call presenter picks or game show games. These have added a gaming experience that game-of-chance lovers cannot find at land-based venous, as choices from this category like Crazy Time and Cash or Cash mix gravity-based ball gameplay, along with software RNG-powered sections for a new type of gambling. Plus, the production values of some presenter picks from game suppliers like Evolution, Pragmatic Play Live, and Playtech are super high-end and something previously unimaginable in the sphere. Thus, this adds another layer of attractiveness that brick-and-mortar casinos cannot match.
In addition, most sites today have a high-roller section catering to gamblers with deep pockets, accepting wagers above $5,000 per hand. This makes these gaming hubs and apps suitable for all types of gamblers, regardless of their game preferences or bankroll size.
Bonuses & Responsible Gambling Tools
When someone plays at a Vegas establishment and spends a lot of time and money in one of these locales, they expect to get comped a few drinks, a meal, and potentially a room. Land-based operators rarely go beyond these perks. Nevertheless, their online counterparts do, letting users gamble for free via no-deposit bonuses, giving free spins on select slots, and automatically entering them in loyalty schemes that can yield benefits like trips to tourist hotspots. They also greet new members with hefty deposit matches that frequently double the sum signees add to their site balances.
To ensure that everyone only spends what they can afford to lose, online casinos also let users set daily, weekly, and monthly deposit limits, loss caps, and session restrictions. These tools keep everyone safe and within their budgets. When people feel they are no longer in control of their impulses, they are presented with an option to self-exclude for a designated period. The platform staff may even suggest that someone do this when an algorithm informs them that a user is betting more than usual.
