Over the last few years, the growth seen in the popularity and profitability of online gambling has been unbelievable. The move onto the World Wide Web of bookmakers and poker companies has seen the business become an enormous, multi-billion dollar entity. However, when one usually thinks of gambling, the idea of the casino often springs to mind. This is something that the online gambling business has duly noted and exploited. In the last 16 years, a huge amount of online casinos have sprung up all over the World and have become a massive part of the internet culture.
The year 1994 stands in history as the year that the idea of online casinos was first established. In this year, the government of the Caribbean nation of Antuiga and Barbuda passed the The Free Trade and Processing Zone Act. This act allowed businesses permission to operate sports books and Casinos out of the islands and even now, many online gambling businesses still operate out of Antuiga and Barbuda, a country that has shaped internet and gambling history.
Also in 1994, the internet gaming giant Microgaming was also set up and the company went on, after deciding to focus solely on internet gaming two years later, to become one of the biggest and most revolutionary of all the online casino companies. Setting up the first ever online progressive jackpot slot “Cash Splash” is just one thing that Microgaming has done that has had an unbelievable influence on the online gaming world.
This is not to say that the first few years of online gambling were totally smooth sailing though. In 1998, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, USA became notorious for being the U.S. Congress’s number one opponent to online gambling. Kyl went on to introduce the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, which looked to make illegal any online gambling products offered to U.S. citizens. Happily for online gamers all over America, the bill failed to gain enough support to be passed.
The first few years of online gambling were certainly eventful and influenced directly the time following when, at the beginning of the 21st century, gambling went from a rapidly growing market, to one of the World’s most profitable industries. History’s lesson is over! Back to real life and earn some real money playing casino online at Onlinecasino.org.uk today.