History of Online Casinos

It is almost hard to believe that the internet has been in full swing for about 20 years now. Of course there have been many changes and advancements since the beginning. Believe it or not, online casinos appeared just shortly after the internet became a more mainstream tool for the public to use.

Online Casinos came into play only several years after the internet was active. In 1994 there were several companies that designed preliminary software for online casinos as well as payment processing systems that were put in place in order to facilitate monetary transactions for online casinos on the internet.

Intercasino, which is still a very popular online casino claims to be the first online casino that was available for players on the World Wide Web. Microgaming and Cryptologic were also some of the first masterminds behind gaming software and payment systems.

In 2001 a player was the lucky winner of an amount over $400,000 US dollars after playing on a progressive slot game at a Caribbean online casino making this the largest online casino jackpot to be won to that date.

In 2002 that jackpot is wiped with a player taking home over 1.59 Million dollars. In 2003, the eCommerce and Online Gambling Regulation and Assurance (ECOGRA) is created to provide some governing over the online gambling industry.

In 2006 there were over 2600 online casinos or online casino like websites on the web. That is also the year that UIGEA showed its face and online casinos and any other form of online gambling was banned from the US.

Online casinos continue to thrive on an overall global scale and are likely to continue to do so. The US is currently rumored to be undergoing talk to reinstate the legislation to permit online casinos back into the US online landscape. Only the future will tell what is next in store for online casinos and the industry as a whole.