Browsing Posts tagged History

    These days, it seems like almost everyone is familiar with gambling on the Internet. Be it online poker, Blackjack, or some other game, most people are either doing it or know someone who is. It seems like these Internet gaming sites sprung up overnight. How did they get started and how have they reached the levels they are at today?

    In 1994, the country of Antigua and Barbuda in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean became a legal jurisdiction that could give out gambling licenses. Since gambling is not licensed in most of the United States, this fact made the creation of an online gambling site very tempting. There was now a location out of which online casinos could operate and still cater to clients in America and elsewhere. There was still the matter, however, of having the software to facilitate online gaming.

    Microgaming was the first to answer the call, creating the first real online casino software in 1994. Cryptologic shortly followed. Cryptologic, formed in 1995, was created by Andrew and Mark Rivkin in an effort to produce ease in Internet transactions. Online gaming was a natural outcropping of this endeavor and in 1996, their software was the foundation for InterCasino, which allowed real money play over the Internet.

    At that time, the Internet was just beginning to generate the kind of traffic that it enjoys today. As the years passed, more improvements were made on gaming software to enhance the experience and more people began to discover the exciting prospects the Internet had to offer in this area.

    In 1998, Planet Poker, the first online poker site, was launched. PokerRoom followed shortly afterwards, in 1999. In 2001, the two giants of online poker, Party Poker and Poker Stars, entered the scene. The explosion in poker popularity helped these sites tremendously, Party Poker, because it advertised frequently on the World Poker Tour and even shared its spokesperson, Mike Sexton and PokerStars, because the 2003 World Series of Poker Champion Chris Moneymaker won his seat on a PokerStars satellite tournament for $40.

    The main concern many of these sites have today is that new legislation, especially in the United States, will block users from legally availing themselves of these sites. A number of lobbying organizations, such as the Poker Players Alliance, have sprung up in an effort to ward off these attempts. The CardPlayer website, http://www.cardplayer.com, has a link which can direct you how to write Congress in opposition to such legislation.

    Today, online casinos for poker, traditional casino games such as Blackjack and Roulette and even newer games such as Caribbean Stud and Pai Gow Poker, are all over the Internet. The software for casino gaming websites is constantly being refined, giving most of the sites a beautiful look and feel, as well as ease in playability and navigating the site. If you enjoy casino gambling, surf around and check some of these sites out. There is bound to be at least one site that provides the gaming experience you are looking for.

    Rick “Stone Face” Ellers started playing poker while he was a paratrooper stationed in Fort Bragg, NC. He currently writes part time for PokerListings.com where you can keep up-to-date on the World Series of Poker and Poker Tournaments around the world.

    Gambling has existed thousands of years ago. We, as human beings, have the natural instinct to survive so in order to do this, we need to take the risks or gamble and hope to achieve victory in return. Gambling existed in many forms. People usually gamble on who will get the largest land or who will win the war. People use coins and dices to decide on their fate and these basic notions had led to the development of casino gambling, which is very popular nowadays. With the popularity of casino gambling taking its toll for several decades now, people have learned to adapt to such popularity. Today, casino gambling has embarked on a new journey and this is to share the excitement of casino gambling to the entire world.

    The Beginnings of Online Casino Industry

    It all started in 1994 at a small island in Antigua and Barbuda. This was the same year when the legalization of online gambling was passed in Antigua. Because of Antigua and Barbuda, internet gambling has moved on to the next generation and continues to soar high up to this present date. Prior to the launching of the first online casino, gaming software were developed. Microgaming is the first gaming software provider that was used to power online casinos. Cryptologic, an online security software company, made the necessary steps to make online gaming safe and secure as possible.

    The online casino industry definitely didn’t have a convenient start, the industries tackled issues on legality and addiction to gambling. A lot of people never really like the idea of gambling online so they promoted anti-gambling campaigns to battle its approval.

    Online Casino Industry “The Present Time

    The internet definitely made great contributions to the development of online gambling. With the evolution of technology, people can enjoy their favorite casino game anytime, anywhere. But many people, especially US officials, seriously detest the legalization of online gambling. Despite the legality issues, many people still want to become part of the online gambling industry. Today, the online gambling industry is definitely on the verge of becoming one of the biggest profitable industries in the world. Online casinos continue to increase in number and various programs to promote online gambling like tournaments and World Series have already been set to provide only the best for every player. The online gambling industry is definitely here to stay and it will continue to surpass all obstacles and rise stronger than ever.

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    Gaming chips have been made from a wide range of materials in an almost infinite variety of styles since the birth of gambling and the need to keep track of winnings. The most common material types used today in the manufacture of modern poker chips are plastic, clay composite, and acrylic composite. Clay chips, the oldest of the bunch, have been manufactured in America since the late 1800s.

    Back in the 1800s, poker players seemed to use any small valuable object imaginable. Early poker players sometimes used jagged gold pieces as well as chips – primarily made of wood and clay. By the 20th century, poker chip designs began to play a greater prominence, and the smooth edges of older chips gave way to chips with engraved slits to keep them neatly stacked together. Most recently, affordable plastic poker chips appeared in the 1940s.

    There is no doubt that poker has grown steadily in popularity ever since its origin in the 1800s. With the explosive growth of online gaming and specialty TV shows, public interest in poker has accelerated faster than ever before. Many people are first introduced to poker by TV shows such as Bravo’s “Celebrity Poker Showdown” or the Travel Channel’s “World Poker Tour,” and many will play their first hands online. Despite online poker’s rise, nothing replaces the feeling of shuffling heavy clay poker chips in your hand, throwing chips into the center of a casino table, or stacking tall piles of chips after showing a victorious hand.

    Poker Chips Info provides detailed information about the history and types of poker chips, as well as poker chips cases and sets, and advice on where to buy poker chips. Poker Chips Info is the sister site of Pool Tables Web.

    The United States people and their government have always had an ambivalent view of gambling, including lotteries, casino games, and betting on sports games. Even today, with gambling being legal in various states and Indian tribal areas, most people view the activity as either illegal or immoral. And the state of the law in regards to betting in any form just makes the situation even more difficult to unravel for the majority of people living in the US.

    Throughout the history of the country, the legalization and criminalization of gambling has proceeded in cycles. First, no gambling is legal, but it is impossible to enforce such laws. Reforms are made to allow some types of games, which then leads to more liberalization of the laws and more types of betting becoming legal. Inevitably, corruption comes into the picture on a small scale, then on a large scale, and scandals become the focus of media attention. As a result, the reform is made back to all gambling being illegal.

    This cycle has repeated numerous times in American history, and we are currently experiencing a third wave of legalization. This third wave started during the Great Depression as some states went from a complete ban on legal gambling to allowing certain types of betting on horse races and off track betting. Nevada also allowed casino gambling during the 1930s. The cycle picked up steam in the 1960s with the first state-sponsored lottery in New Hampshire and the promotion of legal casinos on Indian tribal lands.

    Once the door was open to state lotteries, numerous types of gambling started to become legal and legitimate types of business, if not openly embraced and accepted in general. Governments started to allow different types of casino games and betting in order to generate tax revenue, and even participated in various plans to promote such lotteries and casinos. New Jersey allowed legal casinos in the 1970s, and Indian tribal lands gained the ability to create them during the 1980s.

    In the early 1990s, Iowa allowed riverboat gambling, and then several more states allowed legal types of gambling. The point of no return had been reached, leading to the situation today: 48 out of the 50 states in the US allow some form of commercial gambling, and three out of the five territories owned by the government also allow it. The only two holdouts are Utah and Hawaii, and even Hawaii now allows social gaming, although it does not sponsor gambling at the state level.

    The only real hurdle left to for the US to jump over is the legalization of offshore online casinos operating in the country. With literally thousands of different online gaming websites out there, most of them based in foreign countries, the worldwide trend is towards legalizing, licensing, and regulating gambling institutions, rather than just banning them or restricting trade. And it is probably only a matter of time before even these companies are legally allowed to operate in the United States of America.

    Michael publishes informative articles discussing current trends in the casino gambling world. These articles provide history and context that gamblers can use when considering which casino to gamble with, as well as which online casino sites are recommended for placing online bets. He also provides numerous articles analyzing the NFL, MLB, and the NBA among other amateur and professional sports leagues. More can be found at his website: http://www.ibetsonline.com/

    A Brief Account of Initial Days of Online Gambling

    Online casino history started in the decade of 1990. In the year 1995, the first ever online casino hit the market and marveled everyone. The name of this internet based casino was Internet Casinos Inc. (in short, ICI). The first ever virtual casino was launched on 18th August 1995. During the initial phase, this company started operating from the islands of Caicos and Turks. Internet Casinos Inc. started its operation outside America because they feared prosecution from the Government of United States of America.

    Tell Us Something More About the History of Virtual Betting

    What is the total duration of the online casino history? The answer to this question is approximately 10 years. Casinos have always been popular among human world. However, a gambling aficionado has to travel long distances to play and enjoy the fun of gambling. Online casinos have helped these betting lovers to enjoy the games right from their home. Thus, you don’t have to move from one place to another to play the virtual casino games. Some of these characteristic features of virtual casinos make it immensely popular among gambling aficionados.

    Is online casino history absolutely smooth? Wasn’t there any hiccup in the entire history of internet based gambling? Yes, there were many hindrances in the entire progress path of internet based casinos. The main hindrance that online gambling industry faces is the legal threat to it. Still now, the main hiccup to online betting of USA is UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act). According to this law, any kind of payments related to online betting is illegal. This law does not make online gambling illegal directly. Consequently, many online casinos have stopped allowing players from America. These are some of the hiccups faced by online gambling industry in the entire online casino history.

    Now, Let Us Check The Evolutionary Chronology of Online Casino History

    1. In the Year 1994, a new Act was passed by the Government of Antigua-Barbuda, known as ‘The Free Trade and Processing Zone Act, 1994′. Many internet based casinos as well as sports-books have license of the same and this license is considered as one of the most popular licenses among the internet based gambling industry.

    2. One of the largest providers of software in online betting is Micro gaming. It is a huge software development company, which has mastered the techniques of generating software for online betting sites. This company was founded in the year of 1994. In the following year, that is 1995, another software developing giant called Cryptologic was launched.

    3. 1996 has special significance in online casino history. In this year, the first internet based casino site that accepts real money was launched. In the month of October of 1996, InterCasino first launched such a virtual casino that dealt with real money.

    4. First ever gambling related Act was introduced by a US Congress Senator named Jon Kyl. The year was 1998. The name of this Act was Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. According to this, a company will be regarded as illegal if it offers betting services to any American. This Act was not passed by the US Senate. A revised version of this Act was also placed in the US Senate in the following year, i.e. 1999, but this was also voted down by the Senate. In the same year, a renowned company called Frost and Sullivan published a research report and mentioned in it that online gambling has generated a mammoth amount of revenue of US$ 834.5 million.

    5. Internet Gambling Prohibition Act was introduced by a Congress representative, Bob Goodlatte, in the US House of Representatives in the year 2000. However, this Act was also voted down and it failed to acquire the required two-third majority vote. In the year 2000, Cryptologic had published their annual report where it was mentioned that 680,000 customers had used their system of electronic payment already. 2000 was an auspicious year for Cryptologic. It got listed in NASDAQ and received the symbol, ‘CRYP’.

    6. Year 2004, was specifically important for online gambling. In this year itself, WTO (World Trade Organization) ruled against US regarding legal issues and sided with the Government of Antigua-Barbuda. According to WTO, it is unethical and illegal for American government to restrict online gambling because it allows land based casinos as well as horse race-betting sites to operate in US.

    In the same year, Christiansen Capital Advisors has shown figures that 51% of the total revenues from online betting across the world (approximately US$ 8.5 Million) came from United States of America itself.

    Thus, we can conclude that online casino history is not ‘bed of roses’ and is full of ups and downs.

    Maurismo Chirstopher is an online casino gambler. He has shared his knowledge on online casinos history in this article.