Image via Wikipedia
Online casinos are big — really big. They’re so big that for those who frequent them, it’s practically impossible to imagine a world without the ability to just log on and play some slots or poker from the comfort of your living room. But this was the truth not so long ago…
Here is the history of online casinos in a nutshell:
- In 1994, the Free Trade and Processing Zone Act went into effect, creating laws online casinos are still operated under today.
- In 1996 the first-ever online casino was created, offering a mere 18 games. That same year somebody placed the very first cash bet in any online casino in history — quite a milestone!
- In 1998, people tried to ban online casinos with the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, which thankfully turned out to be a big flop.
- 1999 marked the very first multiplayer online casinos. Before this, everybody had been playing the games by themselves, which was considerably less fun than playing in a group and chatting with each other in text chat rooms on the side.
- In 2002, a player won over a million dollars in an online casino, making a big splash — this showed that online casinos were no small stuff.
- In 2003, the World Series of Poker winner was a player who had only ever played in online casinos before. Oh, and a bill is passed to make money transfers from online casinos illegal.
- In 2004, the online gambling ban was lifted after somebody pointed out that regular casinos aren’t limited by it.
- Online casinos have been going stronger and stronger ever since 2004 — they’re here to stay!
