The first online casino

There are currently over two thousand official online casinos on the internet. This popularity has been achieved over a period of twenty years. On the one hand, this period seems small. However, things are different for the gambling industry. During this time, many important things have been done that have attracted hundreds of thousands of active players from all over the world. And some of them wonder what the first steps towards the development of online gambling were.

In fact, the development of online casinos was much more rapid than it was in the offline industry. For example, the classic one-armed bandit with just one winning line was transformed into a modern electronic slot with a variety of bonuses and winning combinations for an entire century. As you can see, information technology has made the development of gambling much faster.

The birth of online gambling

In the early 1990s, the Internet was first launched in the United States. At that time, the first websites of various directions appeared on the net, and the number of users grew very fast. Unlike many others, representatives of gambling establishments quickly saw the potential in the Internet and began to act prospectively, introducing their developments.

A pioneer in this business was the now well-known company Microgaming. In 1998, when many countries had not yet realized the potential of the Internet, the first slot machine for online casinos was launched.

The first slot machine

The very first online slot was Pharaoh Fortune. Attention to it was so high that the company Microgaming have not stalled and quickly began to create and produce new machines. Thus, in the same year players saw Martian Money, Trickon Treat, and Golden Dragon. Already in 1999, 20 more slots were developed. The new machines featured prize symbols, free spins and bonus games. Microgaming was not only able to build on their success, but also to release slots nowadays.

The development of online gambling continued. Very soon appeared the first slot with a progressive jackpot, called Cash Splash. And in 2000, three more such machines appeared. Interesting fact: The Mega Moolah Progressive holds the record, listed in the Guinness Book of Records. The slot won a progressive jackpot of €18.9 million.

The first online casinos

While slot machines were popular, they initially had one major problem – it was impossible to play for real money without the ability to deposit funds into an account. To fix this problem, Cryptologic launched the first online payment transactions. This made it possible to create virtual gambling establishments with the possibility of playing for real money. Very soon an online casino opened – Gaming Club by Microgaming. The institution was able to withstand further serious competition and operates now. Around the same time, the InterCasino online casino from Cryptologic opened.

It is now difficult to say which of these establishments is the first. On the Internet, you can find information that InterCasino was launched in 1996. The Gaming Club website lists 1994 as the date of opening. However, in fact, this is the year Microgaming itself appeared and the casino was launched in 1996. Therefore, it is now difficult to determine which establishment is truly the first.

What’s interesting is that back then, players could download casinos onto their computers. And the internet itself wasn’t what we see today. The connection was slow and constantly interrupted and gambling itself was problematic. Only 10 years later, with the advent of high-speed Internet, everything has changed and the world of gambling entertainment has become much more accessible.