HOW ONLINE GAMBLING WAS DEVELOPED
03/11/2010Gambling has existed for literally thousands of years and will probably exist forever. Human nature drives people to gamble; to take risks and to hope to win big.
Gambling took on many forms throughout history, whether it was wagering bets on who would win a war or a battle or chase down a wild boar the fastest. Then came dice games and other forms of relatively primitive games which allowed mankind its much needed outlet for risk taking and later on came cards game, roulette, sports bets and all the other gambling options we have today.
All this changed with the help of technology and a little thing called the Internet. The Internet has changed our lives in many ways and in practically every aspect of life. Gambling, of course, is no exception. Online gambling caught on like fire and is today one of the most prosperous online industries in the world with billions of dollars in revenue each year, and the numbers just keep growing.
Online Games are currently an industry unto themselves. The evolution of these games parallels in many ways the evolution of computers and computer networking, with new technologies allowing major steps forward in functionality in different areas. In the mid-1990’s, the World Wide Web revolutionized the gambling world. The evolution of technology made it possible to gamble anywhere, anytime.
The first online casino offered 18 different games and online access to the National Indian Lottery. The online gambling industry revenues in 1997 were $1 billion, with $600 million from the U.S. alone. The revenues tripled by 2001 with more than $3 billion worldwide, almost tripled again by 2004 with $8.2 billion and reached more than $15 billion in revenues so far in 2006. All predictions for the future of online gambling, which predicted revenues of $25 billion by 2010 are now void, due to the new American law. But growth in the industry, where gambling is not outlawed, is guaranteed.