Live Casinos of the Future

What can we expect from gaming at home in the future?

The History of VR

The world of gaming has come on leaps and bounds since just 2016 when Virtual Reality gaming arrived in the mainstream with the release of the Oculus Rift, the FTC Vive and the Sony VR headsets. Gamers were able to suit up and fully immerse themselves in their games.

VR has come a huge way since the first functioning computer-generated VR environment was created in 1968. Ivan Sutherland, a computer graphics pioneer from the US, created a VR headset to go along with his environment that was so heavy it couldn’t be supported by the human neck – ouch.

After a further efforts such as the 3D glasses from Sega in the 80’s didn’t take off, VR was left pretty much in the background by many until 2012 when Oculus raised $2.5 million on Kickstarter for the development of their headset. It must have been a giant leap forward, as Facebook bought out the company for $2 billion not long after

Rarely when new technology is invented does it stay in the domain in which it was originally intended. The VR headsets that were originally intended and for console and PC gaming are being looked at as the next step in online gambling. Can you imagine immersing yourself in the glitz and glamour of Las Vegas from your own living room?

How does it work for Casinos?

Once you put the headset on you are immediately transported to a casino. You would control the environment with a controller in your hand and navigate around the area to the game that you want to play.

SlotsMillion developed the first Virtual Reality casino and were hit with mountains of red tape from the outset. While developing the system, SlotsMillion worked alongside the Maltese gaming regulators – the licensing jurisdiction of Malta. Since this was a completely new medium that SlotsMillion were working on, they called out to regulators as they were looking to develop a new set of best practices.

Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, depending on how you look at it, the Maltese regulators insisted that there should be clocks visible on the walls so that the players would not be able to lose track of time while they were playing. This flies in the face of usual land-based casinos, where you would struggle to find anyone even wearing a watch let alone a clock on the wall.

The Future?

It goes without saying that nobody can really predict the future. But with Statista suggesting that the market for VR gaming will hit $15.6 billion by 2020, you can be sure that the gaming and gambling world will adopt the technology sooner rather than later. It is likely you will soon be able to play your favourite casino games using VR, like the ones found here: https://casino.paddypower.com/p/live-casino from Paddy Power, in the very near future.