An argument can certainly be made for the addition of gambling to Benjamin Franklin’s timeless remark about death and taxes. Gambling has been a fixture across time and space in human history, with the earliest evidence coming before written history began, in the Palaeolithic period.
While, at its core, the spirit and the basic rules of gambling have remained consistent, the means to the end have evolved rapidly, particularly over the last century. A formerly small-scale, decentralized pastime has transformed the legal gaming industry into one of the world’s most titanic industries: with a worldwide estimated value of $711 billion.
As well as the prodigious growth of the sector around the world, the way that the sector is developing has changed considerably over the last two decades. The rise of the internet, and with it, the online casino, has fundamentally transformed the way people bet.
Of course, as with many other sectors, the increases in accessibility and convenience have naturally catapulted online competitors over their bricks-and-mortar counterparts. Customers are now able to place bets on quite literally millions of different casino options from countless different providers, or to place a wager on any sports event in the world (or from a virtual world) with just a few taps.
Like the internet itself, this fundamental shift in the gaming industry is now well-established. Yet a much more recent shift, one which could prove equally as significant for the sector, is well underway: the blockchain revolution.
While the dot com boom created an explosion in competition, which forced the hands of established bookmakers and casinos and created an imperative to innovate – this has slowed down significantly over the 2010s. The market consolidated around major players, and most customers saw little changes in their experience.
Now, everything has changed. Brand new “crypto casinos” have lit a fire of relentless innovation under their more established competitors, who are struggling to keep up.
The intricacies of the technology lend themselves perfectly to the priorities of casino customers.
Near-perfect protection against hacking and security breaches, for instance, represent a natural competitive advantage. Circumspect gamers, well aware of some of the cyber attacks and security breaches that more established casinos have fallen prey to in recent years, are flocking in their multitudes to the in-built privacy and safety afforded to them by blockchain-enabled casinos.
Furthermore, these customers value the absolute transparency that these crypto casinos offer. Access to the smart contracts employed by these casinos in their various gaming offerings assure customers that they are not being swindled by unfair or skewed algorithms.
Aside from the offerings that crypto casinos bring through their use of the blockchain to underpin their systems, their challenger status and technology-first approaches often lead to pioneering standard-setting in terms of other technology.
The variety of offerings, for instance, is a real hallmark of the crypto casino. One leading site, Roobet – whose customers have placed just under 2.5 billion wagers at the time of writing – offers over 1500+ games.
Despite these staggering numbers, quantity is certainly not replacing quality. Another feature of these casinos is the use of high-level virtual reality and augmented reality software to make the customer experience yet more immersive and interactive. Blockchain is not the only technology which these crypto casinos are placing themselves at the cutting edge of.
The customer-centric design of these casinos, and the offerings they provide, is truly setting these casinos apart. These types of innovation are no doubt sending shivers down the spines of the established big players in the gaming industry.
As cryptocurrencies, and the benefits which they create, become more mainstream, there is no doubt that emerging players like Roobet, [Insert preferred competitors here], will become yet more competitive. If they can keep up with the break-neck pace of innovation that they have set for themselves over the past few years, then the days of the dominance of traditional casinos and bookmakers seem very much numbered, as a new era is ushered in.