The 1st online casino opened up in 1996 and remains to be today. In fact, there are numerous casinos that opened up the first couple of years that gambling has been on the Internet (and hundreds since), rendering it one of the very most successful online industries ever. But it wasn’t always success and easy roads for the online casino industry, as you will soon see.
Even before InterCasino opened their virtual doors in 1996, there clearly was a huge amount of opposition. Lawmakers and anti-gambling groups lined as much as take their pot shot at the upcoming online casino openings. But once the High Commission of Antigua and Barbuda in the West Indies passed the “Free Trade and Processing Zone Act”, the pieces were set up to make online casino history. They started the Division of Gaming to provide out the first official jurisdictional licenses to ensure that potential operators could now legally start their online casinos. Since the US and other big countries refused to provide out these licenses, this is a huge section of online casino history.
Luckily since that time, various other jurisdictions have started issuing licenses all around the world, including Canada, the UK and more. But that list stops lacking the United States, which still steadfastly won’t issue licenses.
The very first online casinos were met with lots of skepticism, as sending information like credit cards, names and addresses over the internet was still met with lots of suspicion. Online casinos were considered to be shady or run by the mob. Slow connections meant stalled programs and graphics and a lack of quality software providers in the fledgling industry meant lots of stalled platforms.
Enter CryptoLogic and Microgaming, two online casino history pioneers. CryptoLogic went of these way to provide encryption technology to the online casinos, and therefore sensitive information like credit card numbers were now safe from hackers. Microgaming was one of many first and still one คาสิโนออนไลน์ เครดิตฟรี 100 บาท of the finest software providers, making crisp graphics and realistic sound when these things were still hard ahead by online. Cable modems and DSL lines caused it to be faster and far more convenient to begin downloading software, with less lag and connection problems.
All which was left to do was to earn trust, which started happening in 1999. Which was the season that Microgaming, in an endeavor to show the honesty of all online casinos, struck an agreement with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, one of the very most famous and honest accounting firms in the world. PWC agreed to begin auditing the online casinos’ payout percentages, to prove which they did indeed payout large sums of money- in many cases, significantly more than Las Vegas casinos.
Because of all of these developments, the newest millennium started the Golden Age for online casinos. The very first IPO for online casino stock became available, more jurisdictions came online and the first Progressive Jackpots awarded millions to lucky customers. Business was booming.
Immediately after, Poker started to dominate the airwaves, and Poker Rooms, many affiliated with online casinos, became most of the rage. With the boom in online Poker Room technology, the online casino industry took in billions in 2004, with profits likely to triple and possibly even quadruple by 2010.
Unfortunately, there will continue being a whole lot more to write about online casino history later. The reason being the industry continues to possess opposition in lots of camps, which shows no sign of stopping. People like Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona introduce bill after bill wanting to power down online casinos, ensure it is illegal for US citizens to play at them, or at the very least ban US credit cards from getting used to fund online casino gambling.
Though none of the measures has ever passed, they continue being introduced. With the surge in popularity lately, though, it generally does not look like they’ll make much headway. Hopefully, this means that the next chapter of online casino history has more bright spots than legal ones.