History of Online Casinos

For the first article I have chosen to tell you a little about the history of online casino. It seems like the perfect article to open with because this industry is rolling for such a long time that we forgot or don’t know how it all began.

The term “Casino” comes from the word Villa or a summerhouse which is actually an Italian house built for pleasure not only for gambling but also for sports and other kinds of pleasure. The first or one of the first casinos was built in Venice around 1638. Activity of gambling or the game of chance is found in almost every society throughout the history, from the ancient Greeks though the Elizabethan England. In America, the first casinos were called saloons where travelers could have found other people to talk to, drink and gamble. During the 20^th century gambling was already banned by the government but in 1931 it was legalized in few states to become the first official casinos in America.

The World Wide Web invention followed by the DOT NET revolution in the late 90s allowed the online casinos to exist. Everything that existed offline was being tried online including online casinos. Although back then, online casinos were not that sophisticated it was the starting point for one of the biggest industries in the world.

In 1994, Microgaming was founded after the passing of the Free Trade and Processing Zone Act following by Cryptologic and other online gambling platforms. In 1996 many online casinos were launched like Inter casino and the Gaming Club. At first People were bit skeptics because of the safety of financial transactions reasons and owners honesty. Over the next few years the online casino industry flourished and more casino, sport books and mainly poker rooms were launched. In 1998 Microgaming developed the first progressive jackpot – Cash Splash. In 1999 Boss Media revolutionized online gambling with the launch of their new multi-player software, allowing multiple Players to play the same game at once and to chat with each other at the game tables.

On July 2006 t he US government arrested BetOnSports CEO, David Caruthers after charged with tax evasion. In September, the US Senate passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act 2006 (UIGEA). This Act was passed in response to 9/11 to prevent terrorist Organizations from using online casinos to launder money. The following year, NETeller pulls out of the US and loses approximately two-thirds of their business and online casinos are forced to close or consolidate their operations due to the loss of the US Players.

In 2008, Microgaming, pulled out of America. This left Real Time Gaming (RTG) and Vegas Technology, formerly Odds On and now also Topgame, to brand their products in the US market.

I hope you enjoyed reading. Now let’s play some roulette ;-}

Regards,
Rich Casino Team.