In any competitive market the key players do all they can to stay at least one step ahead of the competition – and few markets are quite as competitive as the world of online casinos. Ever since they first started gaining popularity technology has also been advancing at a rate never seen before so a great deal of time, effort and investment has gone into staying at the forefront of this revolution.
Naturally, this is not just linked to keeping up to date with the sorts of devices that players are using to access the online casinos, it is also all about offering the very best and most secure playing conditions as well as creating an environment in which players can feel safe.
The earliest versions of online casinos were primarily like video games but as the market has evolved there has been a real move to trying to replicate the real casino experience as much as possible. So many of the leading poker and gaming sites have developed the “live” casino experience.
This uses the latest camera technology to show real dealers dealing real cards, or spinning actual roulette wheels, so players can take part in the action as it happens. To add to the realism there is generally also a “chat” feature to enable interaction with the dealers, just like in a bricks and mortar casino. Probably the cleverest piece of kit needed in the live casino is the Game Control Unit. This is the device that converts the cards that are dealt or the number that comes up into digital information which can then be used for online play.
Of course, this isn’t an issue for pure online games such as slots or poker but for these it’s essential to have a device called a Random Number Generator. As the name suggests, this is a program that uses algorithms to randomly generate digital events as if they were real, physical occurrences. It’s essential that these really can produce truly random outcomes time after time if players are going to feel confident that the odds are not fixed against them.
Also important is the technology behind the security measures that are in place. This needs to be just as robust as that used by banks and other organizations where data and financial protection is key. So, the very best online casinos use at least 128-bit SSL data encryption or, ideally, 256-bit making it virtually impregnable.
With an eye to the future, another area in which casinos are forging ahead is with Virtual Reality. Many observers predict that the time for this technology really has arrived and already a number of online casinos are offering games where you can be fully immersed in the casino experience, whether playing against “virtual” opponents or against real ones represented by their online avatars.
So, it looks like we’re at a very exciting time in the development of online gaming—and it may even mark the moment when tech developed by and for the industry actually starts to lead the way and begins to be adopted by other sectors too.
