If you are a gambling enthusiast in 2021, you must know your way around the online gambling world. In fact, it is probably the most popular way of gambling now. It gives people access to not only gambling games but also sports and e-sports gambling. People from all over the world can participate in online gambling and make money. Online gambling is any form of betting that is conducted entirely online, starting from the bet itself to the wins or losses. It has provided everyone accesses to a place that was mostly reserved for the elites. But how did it all start? Let’s take a look at the fascinating history of online gambling.
The Beginning
Before the birth of online gambling, people had to gamble in casinos or bet through bookies. The gambling world was reserved for those of the upper class. There was technically no way of safe gambling for the people with less money. But it all changed in the ’90s. The first online casinos became available in the year 1994. This is when Antigua and Barbuda passed their infamous Free Trade and Processing Act. Through this act, they granted licenses to the organizations that wanted to open online casinos. Even though online casinos came much later, Microgaming was the first one to ever create a fully functioning gambling software. This was supported and secured by software that CryptoLogic developed. After safe money transactions became viable, the first online casino opened in 1994.
In 1996, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission was established. They issued gambling licenses to many online gambling sites. Through these, online casinos and online gambling became hugely popular in the late ’90s. In 1996, there were only 15 operating online gambling sites and by the next year, the number became about 200. In 1998, they introduced the first online poker rooms for poker enthusiasts, and the rest was history.
Online Sports Betting
The tale of online gambling would be incomplete without the history of online betting, especially, sports betting. The rise of online sports betting began very organically by the end of the century. By then, many famous bookies were also looking into the online gambling market. As a result, in 1996, the first online site that initiated the journey of online sports betting was InterTops. They made a way for all the betting fans across the world to wager on their favorite teams without having to look for a bookie. After the huge initial success of InterSports, many other famous bookmakers also entered the rapidly growing market of online sports betting.
These new websites were not only giving people access to the world of gambling. But they were also giving them a lot of bonuses and other offers to peak their interest in online gambling and betting. This trend still continues to this day as many online casinos and betting websites give their bettors many bonuses and offers that they can make money off of.
In 2000, there came another boom to the sports betting industry through Betfair. They first introduced peer-to-peer betting which became insanely popular. This lets players make bets between themselves instead of through a booker. And the site used to take a percentage of every wager made. Through many such incidents, the world of online betting became what it is today.
Legalities
Many countries have banned online gambling for various reasons. There are loopholes and some online casinos still allow players from those countries to play in the online casinos. But there are many gambling websites that will not allow you to do business with them if your country has banned online gambling. So you have to be careful and have knowledge about the laws on gambling and online gambling in your country before you start betting.
Conclusion
Online gambling has taken the whole gambling and betting world by storm. Instead of just a few elites getting to play in a good casino and learn to become experts, but now many people can do it. Especially youngsters who learned to play through online casinos. This has also made way for young gambling and poker enthusiasts to win titles like the WSOP bracelet. Many WSOP bracelet winners in the recent past have been young players that learned to play poker online. Even though in the beginning, people looked down upon the players who learned to gamble online, nobody dares to do that anymore. The internet era has given people access to unimaginable things, including the world of online casinos. We hope that the world of internet gambling keeps thriving and giving birth to new talents every day.
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