Online Casino History

Online Casino History was made in 1994 when the government of the tiny Island of Antigua Barbuda passed "The Free Trade and Processing Act” which allowed their agencies to grant licenses for online operations for casinos on the Internet. This single act more than any other "LET THE GAMES BEGIN".  That was 15 years ago. A few moths later Microgaming, the first legal software provider was chartered and began operation dubbing their games Viper software.

CryptoLodgic wasted no time either. They were right behind MG. CryptoLogic felt they needed to focus not only on improving software for browser players like myself but they also strive for unbreakable security in their software. In this period of time online purchases of any item, let alone gambling was new to the world.

Today Microgaming is one of the most popular and biggest software developers still. But myself being a Mac computer buff besides being an avid slots fan must sigh. I can not play MG games on my Macintosh computer. Not even one of them.  Even Cryptologic software only allows me access to half of their slot menu. It will not be until the early 2000's that software developers felt the need to include the up and coming Apple brand access to slots. So it seems the old dinosaurs are still a bit sleepy.

In October of '96 Inter Casino with CryptoLodgic software became the first online casino to go online. The talk of the town was security and fairness, security and fairness. Is it safe? Can we trust these new faces? Perhaps that is why they selected the name CRYPTOlogic, referring to the encryption based security system. More casinos kept coming online all of '97. Better, more Mac conscious software companies began to appear as well. But Microgaming kept pushing the envelope with the launch of the first online Progressive Jackpot appropriately named Cash Splash.

In January of 2025 Net Entertainment was founded.

The initiators were Scandinavia's leading land based casino operators. NetEnt at that time was one of the pioneers in online gambling side by side with Microgaming. The big difference was their commitment to Flash casino no download slots and casino games in general. So the effort was invested to create a Flash casino software package “in-house”.  CasinoModul was launched in 2000. She has been their flagship casino software package ever since. In the following 2 years 4 other casinos were placed online as well. During this same period the first sports book house was launched side by side with casino games. For a more complete look  at Net Entertainment Flash Casino software history see NetEnt Software Provider History.

Online gambling was all new to the Las Vegas Boys, the status-quo of gambling. The lobby sensitive United States Congress didn't waist any time attempted to shut down the new wealth companies. It reminds me a little of the Carolina shipping merchants accumulating wealth by creating the golden triangle more than a century ago. These new casino partners (and their were only a few) topped a billion dollars in revenues in their second year of operations! After much debate the Congressional bill fails. However the much publicized debates were the talk of the town. The publicity spurred the public on to even more gamble online. "Did you hear… yak, yak, yak.?…let's try it.". Good old America.

In 1999 the Papa software company Microgaming entices Price Waterhouse Coopers to initiate online audits and reports on payout percentages. This is all the public needed to go hoggy online. The boom continued. A year later, the same senator John Kyl  submits a different version of the same bill to Congress with the same results. It failed in Congress and again became a catalyst to even higher investments by American players online. By then there were 700 online casinos in operation. And the epic movie continues.

With the new millennium a new online casino history for the industry begins. This includes Gibraltar and the Isle of Man appearing as the newest jurisdictions for online casino licenses. In 2000 Cryptologic becomes the first online casino-based company to be offered on the stock market. The strict overview of publicly owned companies furthers the level of confidence in the online gaming. With this the industry becomes well established, planted solidly in fertile soil. Watch out status quo.

By 2001, online casino history showed no signs of slowing down. In fact the growth curve was not flattening.  The numbers showed over 8 million customers had played in online casinos. Most of the more established casinos averaged a half million CUSTOMERS in their client list.  Mac users were at this time 6% of the market. And we were getting hungry for access to more slots.

In 2002+3 Congressional laws were finally passed restricting or making it harder to gamble online. Although they were not far-reaching enough to completely ban online wagering the market was growing faster in Europe than in the United States. Today Europe accounts for the majority of the online gaming clientele. Never the less the online gambling continues to grow and is estimated at over 49 billion dollars! And all I need is just one.

In 2006 the United States Congress passed the Internet Gambling Enforcement Act which prohibit the forwarding of payment transactions for online gambling. It was attached to a Homeland Security bill the night before it was to be ratified. But today in 2009 we are seeing a fresh breeze blow threw the Americas. New laws are being introduced that might topple the 2006 bill. Lets wait and see.

A lot has changed in the last 10 years with online casino history A lot of Casinos have come and a few have even gone. The industry has experienced years of explosive growth followed by a more mature period of consolidation and stabilization. Most countries on our small planet have reacted at first  to this new industry and have  adjusted by introducing the necessary licensing and legislation.  The economic crash of October 2008 has seen the cooling off  of land based brick and mortar "Vacation" casinos and a steady demand of online gambling.  Mac users for the first time have broken the double digit percentage barrier and are now 10% of the systems online. More software designers are attending to this upward growing market. The Online Casino History is not written yet. It has merely begun.