Gambling Encyclopedia

The concept of online casinos is very simple and straightforward. Imitating their land based predecessors they implemented programming to operate and offer all the popular casino games to gamblers online.

The world’s first online casino debuted on August 18, 1995 as ICI (Internet Casinos Inc) offering about 20 online casino games at launch. This casino has been based on the Turks & Caicos Islands in the Caribbean in order to not conflict with national gambling legislation. During the same time in the mid 90s Gaming Club Casino and Intertops debuted which both claimed to be the first ever online casino. The latter was actually the first online sports book. This operation soon became very popular due to the impeccable service and payouts they offered to players. In 1996 the Interactive Gaming Corp which was a sportsbook listed on NASDAQ launched their own online casino. This company accepted telephone wagers on sports via telephone on a line to Antigua. A practice which came to haunt several sports books as it was in breach of the wireless gambling act which forbids to accept wagers via telephone.

The US has always had a rather restrictive approach to the regulation of online gambling activity in an effort to protect its Las Vegas based casino operators. However since the internet is an entity without boundaries these attempts have largely failed and many online casinos can be reached from the United States without problem. These online casinos operate from the Caribbean or European jurisdictions such as Malta, Gibraltar, or the British Channel Islands. The European government took the approach of tightly regulating online gambling thereby making it a more secure and enjoyable experience for players . In 2006 the US congress passed the Unlawful Illegal Gambling Act (UIGEA) which permits the transfer of funds to gambling operators. Since then the online gambling industry had to refocus and many online casinos have started to focus on other markets in an attempt to diversify and make up for the loss of American customers.

Related posts:

1. Online Casinos, a Guided Tour in the Online Casino Industry
2. The UK Bingo Industry: Where is it Heading?
3. Online Poker Industry – Tracking The Records Of Poker
4. How Fair Online Casino Are?
5. Online Bingo Development – From Birth to Growth

Tags: Casino Bonus, Enseñame, Gambling, online casino, pokerstars, slots

7 Responses to “The Historic Development of the Online Casino Industry”