Casino History – The Online Years

Online casinos have had a relatively short history, having broken off the land-based casinos for just a little over a decade. While its entry onto the gambling scene was fairly nondescript at the time, it has managed to capture the imagination of the global gambling community in ways that few game genres have ever since. A number of legal difficulties have earmarked certain periods in online casinos’ history, but they have managed to remain popular to this very day. Below are some of the key developments in the history of online casinos.

1994
Passing of the Free Trade and Processing Zone Act. This law and others that came after it paved the way for the standardization of laws governing online casinos and how they are run. It was also in 1994 that numerous companies offering a range of online money transfer services came into being.

1996
Real money transactions introduced. This was the year when various websites began offering gambling opportunities for real money. It was in October of that year that the first real money wager was made at an online casino.

1998
Introduction of progressive slots. This year marks the first time that progressive slots machines entered the scene. This consequently resulted in an increase in the number of people playing in various online casinos. Progressive Slot Jackpots remain massively popular with all of the major Casino software types maintaining their own Progressive Jackpot networks..

1998 was also significant for the first attempt to curtail the activities of online casinos, with the proposed Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. The bill was subsequently vetoed.

1999
Online casinos offer multiplayer features. This year marks the first multiplayer online casino on the scene. For the first time, players could share tables and otherwise interact with each other throughout the course of a game. Online Gambling takes a giant step.

2001
Progressive slot jackpots achieve widespread prominence. This year was memorable for the biggest progressive jackpot to date, with nearly half a million dollars up for grabs. 2001 also marked renewed attempts to pass the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, which was proposed and subsequently rejected in 1998. These attempts also failed to get the bill passed.

2002
The first millionaire at an online casino. In 2002, a single player won just over one and a half million dollars in the first jackpot over a million in the history of online casinos.

2003
Creation of Ecogra. This was a much-anticipated development that effectively standardized security and safety practices for online casinos. At the same time, proponents of the online casino bill managed to restrict banks and credit card companies from processing transactions intended for online gambling with the passing of the controversial UIGEA bill.

Present
Online casinos remain operational. In spite of numerous controversies regarding the legality of online gambling, many sites continue to operate and the industry is in a healthier state than ever.