Internet Gaming Timeline - Short History of Online Gambling
How did Online Gaming start?One of the earliest form of gambling used cards and it has its earliest references in Europe, going as far back as 1377. In 1952, almost 600 years later, the first graphical computer game of Noughts and Crosses was developed at Cambridge University. While not a game of cards, it was the start.
Video games followed in 1958 and in 1962 the first commercially available game was produced which took MIT 200 hours to program and was called Spacewar. Role playing games followed with a table tennis game called Pong in 1971, and Dungeons and Dragons in 1974. Dial up games via modem entered the market in 1983, launched and designed by a company who is now known as AOL.
1996 saw WagerLogic complete its first licence for online gambling. They called it InterCasino and advertised that they could accept real money wagers online. After that competitors were very quick to get on the bandwagon and as little as two years later, dozens more casinos were operating online. Only 3 years later a study was released that showed that more than 1300 online casinos accept real money for online wagers. Today these numbers have grown into the tens of thousands.
Short History of Online GamblingBefore online gamine, casinos were often high class places, offering glamour and a place to gamble along side like minded people. The internet has changed this and online gambling has caught on like a runaway train which produces billions in revenue each year.
In 1994, countries that were the catalyst for online gambling were Antigua and Barbuda. In the same year Antigua passed laws which made it legal, and issued gambling licences that gave online gambling its start. Many online gambling companies are still based in this country today.
Even before online gaming there was software available. Based on the Isle of Man, a software company called Micro gaming developed the first operational online casino software, paving the way for many online gambling sites. Then online software called CryptoLogic provided the security needed to make safe transactions and this all helped lead up to the first online Casino in 1995.
By 1997, revenues stood at $1 billion which tripled by 2001, bringing in more than $3 billion worldwide. It tripled again by 2004 and reached $15 billion in 2006. Future predictions are now affected by the new American Laws, but without a doubt, there will be growth in the industry. The bill that was passed by the US Congress in September 30 2006 makes it illegal for banks and credit cards companies to process payments by U.S. residents. The bill became law when it was signed in October by President Bush.
It seems that just when things are going well for online gaming, this law is an attempt to make it impossible for U.S. residents to gamble online. Apart from that what has also happened is that a lot of gaming companies have seen major downfalls in stocks. This law may affect the future of online gaming as the United States provides a substantial income to a lot of these companies.