Gambling Articles

History of Online Casinos

It’s hard to remember back to a time when there were no online casinos, but the online casino industry reaches back only as far as 1994. Thanks to the Free Trade and Processing Zone Act in the tiny Caribbean hideaways of Antigua and Barbuda, Internet casinos are a way of life for people all over the world. The act provided safe harbor for off-shore online casinos, and an industry was born.

It took more than 200 years from the time the first casino was opened in Baden in 1765 for online casinos to enter our homes. Who would have imagined that online gambling revenues would top $5 billion? And that was in 2003. By 2009, it is estimated that revenues will approach $17 billion.

Thanks to Microsoft and Microgaming, the largest software developer of online casino software, online casinos are readily available to computer users regardless of their physical location.

Thanks to broadband connections, players from the four corners of the globe can play poker in real time in lively and exotic settings while they chat with one another, view game statistics and do just about anything they would do in a land-based casino—except order a drink. If poker’s not your game, you can drop virtual coins into the slot machines 24/7. Want to brush up on Blackjack rules? No problem there. Tutorials for every imaginable casino game are available, along with free play. Bonuses and rewards programs are the norm today at online casinos. If you need help, toll-free help is only a phone call away. If you’re not much of a phone person, many of the online casinos now offer LiveChat help.

If you long for real, in-person play, brush up on your Texas Holdem game and you might just work your way up in an online poker tournament—all the way to the World Championship of Poker finals—all expenses paid, of course.

Whatever your gambling style, you’ll find an online casino to meet and exceed your expectations.