The history of online gambling

16.07.2007

Internet gambling has become such a very important part of so many lives today that it is hard to imagine what life was like before internet gambling came into being.

People don't realize that it was only in 1994 when the government of the Caribbean island, Antigua Barbuda, passed a law, the Free Trade and Processing Zone Act, which allowed online casinos to operate. Online casinos operate Online casinos still operates from this homeland. This new law made it legal to operate online casinos from their jurisdiction.

During that same year, Microgaming and Starnet Communications were formed and two brothers, Andrew and Mark Rivkin formed Cryptologic and commenced creating software solutions to handle financial ransactions in a safe manner.

During that period many more gambling developments were formed in Canada However, Microgaming and Cryptologic led the way in gaming technology. eCash depositing and actual money account management was all thanks to Cryptologic who also released their first software subsidiary, WagerLogic during 1996.

InterCasino was one of the very first online casinos to operate online towards the end of 1996.

Starnet Systems International began granting licenses to casino operators with their software packages. They required the casino operators to give them a cut of their earnings which they then used to finance their own online betting site, WorldGamingnet.

Shortly thereafter, Microgaming released the first progressive online slot machine called Cash Splash.

Online gambling became so popular that by the end of 1998 it produced an annual revenue of Eight Hundred and Thirty Five Million Dollars.

United States had a large percentage of online gamblers which resulted in John Kyle who was the Republican senator from Arizona at that time, drafting his first of several bills to try and ban online gambling. This Bill was called the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act but it was not passed and internet gambling continued.

Australia granted a one and only online casino licence to Lasseters in the year 2000. Today Lasseters is still operating in Australia.

By the year 2000 there were approximately 700 online casinos in operation. Microgaming, Cryptologic, Playtech and Boss Media were very popular during that time.

During this time Argentina granted its first online casino licence followed by the UK territories, Isle of Man and Gibraltar who issued licences to internet sports betting websites.

Sun International promised Boss Media to use their software for an online version of the African-based land casino.

Since 2001 many countries have tried to pass bills to prohibit online gambling. One of these bills prohibits credit card companies in the US to facilitate transactions made at internet casinos. It is for this reason that there are so many alternative payments methods on the internet today.

In 2001 the British Channel Islands passed a bill legalizing online betting. Thereafter the U.K. Gambling bill was passed which allowed for more land-based casinos and betting to be allowed.

Every country where online gambling takes place tries to regulate the internet gambling operations so as to maintain ethical and responsible standards.

At present online casino gambling is enjoyed by millions of players in most parts of the world.