The very first online casino launched back in 1995, and shortly after the world’s first casino site opened its doors, even more sites started popping up. Some of these very first online casinos are still around today, and they have changed dramatically since those early days. Here is a closer look at how online casinos began and how they have evolved over the past 25+ years.
How did online casinos begin?
The dawn of the internet opened up many doors for big, small and niche industries around the world, and the casino/gambling industry was just one such example. The very first online casinos opened in the mid-1990s, and they were very different to how they look today. They had a very basic selection of games, and the games themselves were rather crude. People could sign up to online casinos with very few verification checks, and players were limited with regard to the number of payment methods that were available.
In the early days, before web wallets (aka e-Wallets) and cryptocurrencies, players could only deposit into their online casino account using a Visa debit or credit card. As the technology gradually evolved, so too did the quality of games that were being produced, the number of games that were being produced, and the number of payment methods that became available.
2,000 to 2010
The original software providers, Microgaming, Playtech, and NetEnt, to name just three, had very little competition, to begin with. This all changed when even more independent studios started popping up, offering their own take on the classic casino table & card games and slots, as well as video poker games and instant win games. This meant that rather than waiting around for just one or two new games to arrive in an average month, players were now treated to 10 or more games per month. However, most online casinos were still only powered by just one software provider.
Notable land-based slot machine developers, such as IGT, started developing their products for the online market, and even more licensed game development studios also started producing games for online casinos. Players could now find a wide range of games from more than ten leading online casino software providers.
2010 and onwards
Online casinos, from 2010 onwards, started adding more variety for their players by adding games from multiple software providers, which meant that you could now find games from Microgaming, NetEnt, and IGT, all under one roof. Some of the other major players that also started developing industry-award-winning games around this time were Play’n GO, iSoftBet, Yggdrasil Gaming, Thunderkick, ELK Studios, and Blueprint Gaming.
Even more software providers started emerging, and some of the most notable providers that are still going strong to this day are Red Tiger Gaming, Pragmatic Play, Big Time Gaming, Playson, and Relax Gaming. There are currently around 60 leading providers, as well as more than 100 independent game development studios and subsidiaries of these companies, such as Sunfox Games, Triple Edge Studios, Foxium, and All41 Studios. Gameburger Studios, Crazy Tooth Studio, Rabcat, Reel Time Gaming, Fortune Factory Studios, and Just for the Win Studios also now supply games to the major providers.
The latest developments
The latest and most advanced development in the online casino industry is the introduction of live dealer casino games from the likes of Evolution Gaming, Playtech, NetEnt, and Pragmatic Play. These multi-award-winning companies have produced the next level of online casino gaming by releasing hit titles, such as Live Deal or No Deal, Live Adventures Beyond Wonderland, Live Sweet Bonanza Candyland, Live Blackjack, Live Roulette, Live Mega Ball, The Money Drop Live, and MONOPOLY Live. You can also now find a growing number of Live Dealer Slots, such as Live Buffalo Blitz and Live Age of the Gods: God of Storms, which shows you just how far online casinos have come since those early days. Today, the average online casino is packed with more than 1,500 different games!