In just a few short decades, online casinos have risen to become one of the most successful industries on the net. Originating in around 1997, what started as limited and humble systems have become immense networks of expertly designed and delivered content, with no signs of slowing down. The road trodden by online casinos has been one paved with good decisions, but thanks also have to go to coincidence and good fortune, and that’s what we want to look at today.

The Modern Market

Before looking at where we’ve come from, we first need to examine where we are. For an illustration of what a modern online casino can deliver, consider what the latest in online casino websites have to offer. If you click here to play online casino games, you’ll see an example of an evolved service, offering a broad range of options for casual and hardcore players. From games like slots and live blackjack to mobile support and special bonuses, modern services are robust, they offer enormous libraries, and they're held to the highest levels of security. So, how did we get here?

Software Improvements

The first online casinos were limited by the home computer technology of the 1990s. Your phone today is vastly more powerful than these systems were, which connected through slow dial-up modems and ran on processors outclassed by those in modern smart TVs. It's difficult to understate just how far processing technologies have come, with 1980s supercomputers like the CRAY 2 being slower than modern smartphones - check out more about it here. Even so, the simplicity at the core of online casino games meant that early iterations were still recognisable and fun. Built on the then standard of Flash, these games would continue to evolve as internet speeds grew, and average processing power increased.

"Flash 8 Training Book" (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Andrew*

As time went on, the HTML responsible for web page design continued to evolve, but not everything could keep up. In online casinos, Flash continued to drag the rest of the service down, until it was eventually too problematic to keep running. Online casinos abandoned Flash as many others did, bringing an end to the service's legacy, which you can read more about here, converting thousands of titles to the safer, more convenient, and more powerful usurper of HTML5.