The availability of casino gambling has grown over the past decade, especially with the growing demographic of gamblers moving from brick and mort arcasinos to online based casinos, these online casinos are hosted on a variety of different technologies such as Mobile phones, tablets and computers/laptops.
With that variety and ease of accessibility, the casino industry has reached a bigger audience. As the industry has become more accessible the average age of gamblers is decreasing, as more and more people in the 18-35 demographic take up gambling.
The UK Gambling Commission has stated that online based players have been getting younger in the last few years. Past figures have shown the rise of younger players by 17.5% in 2014, compared to the 2008 figures of 10.6% increase in younger players of casino games, it reasons to believe that this will organically increase in years to come.
As the ease of access to new technology grows and becomes easier to obtain, we can predict in the near future an online casino could replicate all the available features of a land based casino. Some speculate that the online aspect makes it more entertaining than your average poker or roulette game due to the fact that their online counterparts are designed to be as engaging as possible for the users, which leads to bigger profits and better development in the range of games.
The majority of casino companies that have started to grow their online presence have developed many ways to create more revenue by introducing membership type plans. The plans give the customer more features depending on the membership status – giving tiers of usual gold, silver or bronze as a stereotypical tier level. Depending on the price they pay, the website can give free betting offers at the tiers they advertise and can be easily implemented on the website.
Over the past decade graphics technology has advanced, and as so have the devices we use, from developments such as more powerful processors being available to more RAM being created for devices, these factors end up making these devices capable to run new casino games which have graphical quality of video games.
When it comes to the advances in technology, developers can introduce new ways of payments such Cryptocurrency this opens up the industry to a new demographic of tech savvy users who can use their services. The same goes with the adaptation of social media into casino games, allowing players to play with their friends over the internet.
And looking forwards, even more technical developments that can impact the industry are on the horizon, such as; virtual reality, which is in its early years with casino games as it’s very niche at the moment, but nevertheless there are already VR gambling experiences where you would place a headset on your head and you can pick up the virtual cards with other players around the world, you will essentially be on a poker table but in the comfort of your own home without visiting land-based casinos.
This will bring the best of both worlds to players, with the ease of access online play grants you with the visual & social aspects of being at a real casino.
In years to come, the gambling industry will see regulations change in hopes to maintain a fair and lucrative industry and allow businesses to utilise new technologies to grow the gambling industry, whilst keeping restrictions in place to create a safe environment for users. HMRC have said that an implementation of new gambling tax rates will take place this year.
Not only will this be a good start to the growth of online gambling and land-based gambling, but also prepare the industry for the future.