Now you will not surprise anyone with a site where you can play free gambling games. Nowadays, online casinos are quite common: you can play at Avalon78 or choose from thousands of other platforms on the Internet. But what is the history behind all of this diversity? How did the first online casinos appear? Let’s find out!
The development of network technologies became truly massive in the mid-90s. The first company to start providing online gambling services was the American game developer Playtech. The first online casino appeared in 1996 and it was called Europa Casino. A little time passed (about a year), as after that the first bookmaker’s office appeared, focusing specifically on the virtual sector. At the time, people did not yet know how these sites work, and not as many people used the Internet as they do today. Therefore the gambling industry developed rather slowly.
In the early 2000s, the situation changed somewhat. Firstly, one of the small island countries decided to start licensing online casinos. At the same time, large audit companies and organizations that protect the rights of players began to work.
By the way, in addition to the first online casinos, software providers appeared, with the help of which any enterprising person could create his own online casino. Now it was enough just to conclude an agreement with an owner of such a company, create a website and make it available to Internet users.
It should be said right away that most of the profits of online casinos were brought not by roulette, card games or craps, but by slot machines. Simple game mechanics and the availability of slots helped some of the first online casinos to gain immense popularity.
In 2006, there were over 2,600 online casinos or online casino-like sites on the network. That same year, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) appeared, and online casinos and any other form of online gambling were banned in the United States. On the other hand, European casinos became even more popular since American gamblers had to look for new platforms.
Now in the network, there are more than 17,000 platforms that have chosen gambling as their specialization. There are both world-famous casinos and young services as well as scammers and official representatives of some land-based casinos. And although the popularity of casinos has slightly decreased in recent years, it still remains stable, which means that this area will still develop in the future.
With the development of technology, live sections appeared in most online casinos in which gamblers could compete with each other, playing for real money. The main feature of live categories is online broadcasts implementation, which allows users to interact with dealers, analyze opponents’ actions, and so on. This innovation has completely changed casinos, making them full-fledged gambling platforms.