What can we expect to see in the coming year at online casinos?
Needless to say, it’s been a mental few years for everything online. When the pandemic shut the world down, more and more aspects of our lives moved online. More people than ever are now working – sometimes even making a living – on the internet, and many businesses have made the virtual world their home too.
One of the main industries to change, however, has been the gambling business. With no local bookmakers or casinos to go to, punters were moving to the online scene to seek their fun. This has caused an unprecedented rise in the online casino industry, so much that now, even with pandemic over, online gambling accounts for nearly half of all the money gambled legally in the world.
Many new platforms are popping up all over the place seemingly every few weeks to take advantage of this craze, and some are offering some enticing deals to grab new customers. For example, MrQ’s promo codes are currently offering new users extra cash with no wagering requirements.
But what’s next for these online casinos? How can they hope to stay fresh when all the real-world casinos are reopening? In this article, we will cover how online casinos have been utilizing the cryptocurrency hype to create new innovations in the world of online gambling.
Crypto Gambling
We’ve already seen a huge increase in the number of people using cryptocurrencies to gamble with. As these altcoins are still a bit of a grey area when it comes to legality, people can play with them in jurisdictions where gambling is usually illegal. The addition of anonymous transactions also helps this.
Plus, with the current boom in cryptocurrencies, you could find yourself winning both in the casino and in the crypto market when your currency increases in value.
Cryptocurrencies have also brought about a whole new innovation in online gambling.
Metaverse Gambling
If you haven’t heard of the metaverse yet then you’re about to, as these new worlds are about to make their way into every part of our lives, especially as we move ever more increasingly into the digital world.
Metaverses are like giant, massive multiplayer virtual worlds where users can create their own virtual properties and businesses then monetize them using cryptocurrencies. Current examples include Decentraland, The Sandbox, and, pretty soon, a Facebook metaverse.
The subject is interesting enough on its own and many innovations are happening on these platforms every day. This year we have already seen casinos opening in these worlds, with many accolades.
The concept crosses over between generic online casinos and real-world casinos in a unique way. Users can interact with other players’ avatars; sit down at tables together to play games and much more. The admins and moderators even appear as “floor managers”.
This pushes online gambling away from the current website versions which are often dull and unexciting.
This brings us nicely to our last point.
VR Gambling
Many of these metaverse platforms are already announcing plans to utilize VR in their systems to make the worlds feel even more real (Ready Player One anyone?). This would entirely change the world of online gambling as we know it.
With VR technology in a metaverse setting, users will be able to experience everything they can experience at a real casino but from their home. Imagine being able to wander around the casino district, meet up with your friends, and play poker together, all in the virtual world but from your VR helmet.
This technology is already here, it’s just up to the developers how they will utilize this. I guess it depends on how much interest people will have in these metaverses in the coming months. But, it is not too far away and it is not unrealistic to believe that, by the end of next year, this could be how all of us are gambling.