Ever gave it a thought as to how and when this amazing and fun time passing thing called Online Gambling came about.
Well, let’s see when Online Casinos was born!
It’s still not a known fact as to the exact date, but most believe that Online Gambling started in 1994 when Antigua and Barbuda passed an act of Free Trade and Processing.
This allowed for licenses to be issued to organizations who wished to open an Online Casino.
After the start of online gambling in 1994, by the end of 1996 more than 15 internet casino sites were already in operation.
If that was not amazing in itself, by the end of 1997, the online gambling industry bragged by almost 200 online casinos, with poker sites and sportsbooks included, available worldwide.
This marked the start of great success and today the online casino industry is worth more than billions!
How did Online Casinos Start?
In 1994, not long after Antigua and Barbuda passed the Free Trade and Processing act, a company with the name Microgaming was introduced.
They claim till this day that they introduced the first fully functioned real-money online casino.
But many others have claimed the same!
But besides who did what first, this was the start of amazing things to come from the online casino world.
Microgaming and CryptoLogic, a company who started and owns one of the first online casinos, were both significant companies at the beginning of online casinos.
They both had quite an influence on the development of the financial system and technology to make online casinos possible.
The First Online Casinos
One of the first Online Casinos was InterCasino, and this casino continues to keep online gamblers happy till this day.
InterCasino is owned by CryptoLogic, a company that responsible and specialising in the real money transactions via the internet.
CryptoLogic transformed the process of how money transactions over the internet, work, making money transactions faster and safer for all users.
The first Online Casino who offered to wager money was InterCasino.
This success was quickly followed and within 2 years, successful online gambling sites opened and are still in operation today.
First Games Available on Online Casinos
The first selection of games that came with the first online casinos was very limited.
The most popular games from land-based casinos were used to create and imitate the first online games.
The game selection was blackjack, classic style slots, keno, table games and video poker.
In 1998 the progressive slot jackpot “Cash Splash” was launched by Microgaming.
Not only did Microgaming introduced the slot game Cash Splash in 1998, but the first ever internet poker room was launched as well!
With time passing and with bigger budgets available, the priority moved, and the focus was more on new game releases.
Today it is nothing but spectacular when it comes to the quantity as well as quality!
The Year 1999
Multi-player games were introduced in 1999, this started giving players the opportunity to interact with each other online.
This also created a more trustworthy way of playing for all online casino players.
In 1999 the internet Gambling Protection Act was introduced; the goal of this act was to prohibit US citizens from using the online gambling services.
New software called Playtech was also launched in 1999.
Playtech is one of the most valued online gaming and sports betting software available today.
Some of the most loved games from Playtech are bingo, blackjack, live casino games, poker, progressive jackpot games, roulette and slot games
What did the Millennium Hold for Online Gambling?
In the year 2000, studies showed that addiction to online gambling was a huge concern and the Federal Government of Australia prohibited online casinos from operating without a license, casinos had till May 2000 to get licensed.
Licenses to international countries were issued by Alderney and Gibraltar making online casinos go worldwide.
By the year 2012 online gambling bloomed with over a billion regular players.
Online Sports Betting History
Not long after the first online casinos started, did Sports Betting began.
It was not long before most of the online casinos started with sports betting as well.
Players from around the world enjoyed placing wagers on their favourite sports games on the internet and this made sports betting very popular.
Even new companies formed to complement the existing operators at the time.
Sports betting became so popular, everyone tried to compete with each other, offering very generous bonuses to new players to attract more gamblers.
In the early 2000s peer to peer, betting was introduced and became popular in an instant, and it remains very popular today.
This type of betting was also known as exchange betting, and being so popular, other companies also decided to launch similar sites.
In 2002 live betting launched and this made it possible for players to place wagers on their favourite sports games as they were happening.
This amazing development quickly became a true success.
This sparked the online sports betting and most of the online casinos started offering sports betting as well.
How did Online Poker Start?
In 1998 the first online poker game was offered since graphics were limited back in the day; players had to make use of alphabetic designation for even suits.
This did not stop online players from enjoying their favourite game on the internet.
Not long after the first online poker game, better poker games was launched with more advanced technology.
This resulted in fast growth for online poker.
In 2001 two new poker sites launched namely PartyPoker and PokerStars and they quickly became front runners.
PartyPoker started running tournaments and the rewards were access to live events.
PartyPoker and PokerStars had a remarkable 2002, the reason for this being, televised poker attracted a large audience and these two casinos started advertising on the shows.
They became the largest poker site because of the advertising.
In 2003 Chris Moneymaker won the World Series for Poker.
This made online poker very popular as most had the same dream, to become winners of big money!
