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Online gambling celebrates its 23-year history

November 24, 2017
2 min
5341

Back on 24 November 1994, Antigua and Barbuda passed a bill according to which any operator could obtain a state license for legal gambling activity on its territory. In addition, in 1994, back than a young company of Microgaming created the world's first online casino that kicked start of Internet gambling market. And in 1997, the first bookmaker offices established a tremendous potential for the gaming industry.

Currently, online games have a legal status in many countries, having turned into a rapidly growing business: some experts predict that by 2020, the total value of online gaming will reach $66, 59 billion.

With the advent of the first online betting platform in 1997, big enterprises and corporations started considering online gaming as a highly potential sector of the global market. Since then, online casinos started conquering the market. At the end of this decade, gambling began gaining popularity through diversification of services like online poker, sports betting, lotteries, bingo and other games.

The emergence of new technologies and the possibility to play on different devices ensures sustainable growth of the industry. The authorities of an increasing number of American states are adopting bills to promote online gambling and, in some cases, even legalize certain gambling sites. The authorities of a number of countries, in turn, follow their example.

For example, Australia legalized gambling in 2001 under the Online Gaming Act, while France gave operators this opportunity back in 2010, right after establishment of a special regulating agency called ARJEL aimed at provision of control over online gaming.

Other countries, however, still have a long way ahead until online casinos obtain the legal status. As online gambling continues flourishing, many states have to decide either to prohibit this type of business or give it a green light, providing legitimate grounds for its regulation.

The rapid pace of industry development proves that it is a highly profitable sector with a huge number of customers.

Sometimes, it is difficult to imagine that 23 years ago it was possible to place bets only at certain websites, because there are already more than 15000 casinos on the Internet.

In terms of range of services and number of games online casinos definitely outstrip their land-based analogues.

In addition, the majority of online casinos nowadays offer live dealer games with a wider range of gambling options compared to traditional gambling and the rate of payoffs in online casinos always reaches not less than 98%.

Read also: From "one-armed bandit" to online games: history of slot invention

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