August 12th, 2008
The Rise of Online Casinos
The first online casino company was software developers Microgaming who began working on developing casino software for the internet in 1994.
The first online casino website made its way on to the World Wide Web in the summer of 1995. It was called InterCasino and featured 18 different casino games. It still operates today.
This was closely followed by Intertops Casino and then the Gaming Club whose owners had already launched the first online sports betting website. These are all US based websites.
The first website to offer casino games based in the UK was called Atlantis. This was the first online casino to offer a VIP club to its punters.
In the 1990s many small time online casino operators popped up and the industry wasn’t as well regulated. This meant there were several dodgy casino operators.
Technology has strongly advanced online casinos now with much better graphics, sound, player security and swifter payouts. In the first three years or so of online casinos, if you won some money you would have to wait about two weeks to receive your payout.
Since these first few years online casinos really took off big time. In 1997, worldwide online gambling revenue was $1 billion, this jumped to $3 billion in 2001 and five years later the industry had expanded so much that the figure was $15 billion!
Today there is much choice for the internet casino player. There is a huge list of reputable online casinos offering 24 hour customer support, high levels of player security, bonuses and regular promotions.