Casinos and tourism together represent a multi-faceted world where harmony, variety; gaming and entertainment are merged together. Casinos have promoted tourism in each and every sense since they are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions. Advancements in the internet, mobile technologies and social media change the industry.
Now with the emergence of online casinos, people don’t have to go to a nearest casino. They can just play it online by just sitting in their own comfort zone. Most of the online casinos have variety of games including slot machines, black jack, internet roulette, and many more to choose from. However it will not be able to offer same environment of a real casino where they welcomed guests with an attractive playground design and attractive amenities such as free snacks and drinks.
The transition from brick and mortar casinos to online gambling on the internet has drastically changed casinos as well. The change has been both positive and negative depending on one’s perception regarding certain aspects of the casino by both casino operators and players alike. In an effort to grasp how the internet has impacted casinos, these comparison sites sprung up across the web helping us to deduce the impact that the internet has had on casinos, while at the same time, shedding some light on the probable innovative future changes that the internet will necessitate.
The first and foremost recognizable change brought about by online casinos has been the rise in the player base both quantitatively and qualitatively. Since the boom of the internet in the early 2000s, the numbers of occasional, mid-range and high roller players have increased. The internet resulted in the emergence of new global stars. The reasoning behind this is simple; make casino games available to all and the number of players will rise.
The internet has also been responsible for the rapid rise in sports betting. Sports betting rapidly increased to such an extent that the revenue from the industry increased from $14 billion in 2015, to a projected $54 billion by the end of 2017 as reported by gambling tracking company App, Annie. The rise can be attributed to the fact that sports betting is able to reach the younger generation.
The internet also allowed players to become more tactical and strategic. When you play online, the ability to assess your opponents’ body language is non-existent, thus in order to be successful you have to have a solid grounding in mathematics and probability theory. Players nowadays have to be more cognisant of how the odds work, even if they are newbies in the gambling business. This has resulted in more players becoming strategically and tactically astute.
Furthermore, the internet also lends a helping hand to players, as there is no longer a need for you to keep all the calculations and permutations in the head. Nowadays, with the use of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, you can automatically calculate optimum play strategy while you are placing your bet. The days of stuffing one’s head with tables of odds have been eliminated by the internet.
In years gone by, casino play was characterised by long tournaments and events whereby players would travel many kilometers and spend days or even weeks battling against each other for victory. But with the emergence of the internet, that is now a thing of the past. These days, online tournaments are hosted over the Internet in a matter of hours without the hassles of travelling long distances.
In addition to the above, the introduction of smartwatches is putting the mechanical slot market at risk and in the long run, it aims to phase out the now unfashionable traditional slot machines. The younger internet generation in the near future will be able to play their favourite casino games on their smart watches using the latest smart technology.
What's more, the future looks far more promising as has been highlighted by Oculus Rift. Using virtual reality software, players are able to virtually enter tournaments and play while sitting right next to the opponent. This will bring back the thrill which had been destroyed by online software as players can read the opponent’s kinesics.
There is no doubt that the internet is here to stay, what is left is for everyone affected by the internet changes to maximise the potential which comes with the change.
