History of Online Gambling

This is a different sort of topic for me but one that I was discussing with someone the other day and I thought it would make a good post. Online gambling is something of craze or at least that is how I view it. Now before you say anything I am not saying that it is good or bad. I think that when done responsibly then it can be great fun. Online gambling began in 1994 when  Antigua and Barbuda passed the Free Trade & Processing Act.

This allowed licences to be granted to organisations applying to open online casinos such as the uk’s leading casino gaming website. Interesting right? I mean I didn’t realize that online gambling, let alone online casinos were that old. I thought they were much newer. Online gambling became popular in the late 90’s and the websites increased from 15 in 1996 to 200 in 1997. That is a really large growth for just one year and by 1998 it was revealed that online gambling revenues was more than $830 million. 

Of course that was that year alone and I can only imagine what they are today. I think I may be in the wrong business money wise 😉 online gambling seems to be where it is! I was most interested in online casinos and learned that there are actually a number of different types. I thought one was the same as the other but apparently there are web-based, ones that you download, as well as a virtual one. Who in the world knew all of this? The laws governing each of these online casinos is different from state to state and country to country. 

While during my research I discovered that the history of gambling goes back much father than I had thought it did, I learned that 2003 to 2006 were consider the poker boom years as the number of online players doubled each year during that time. That is amazing to me, especially considering I live in a little town where you have to drive a distance to do any gambling beyond the State Lottery.