From Saloons to Your Living Room: Gambling Through Time

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Ever since humans understood the importance of property and winning, they have been gambling. In Ancient Egypt, gambling was revered and considered an integral part of their religious practices. Similarly, in India, there is an epic called the Mahabharata, whose plot revolves around a gambling match between brothers, ultimately leading to war.

Therefore, gambling has been an integral part of human history. Just like everything, gambling has also evolved. From those smoke-filled saloons of the Wild West to digital casinos like RollXO New Zealand, gambling has come a long way.

In today’s article, we will be exploring a crucial chapter in the history of gambling: Casinos. Casinos capitalized on this primal instinct in human beings to risk everything for the chance to win everything, transforming it into a multi-billion-dollar industry.

Therefore, if you want to know more about casinos, then follow along. We will examine some of the major milestones the industry has reached since its inception. Here we go!

Brisk Overview Of The History Of Casinos

While it is a contentious topic, some experts say that casinos have been around ever since gambling became a thing. Anthropologists and archaeologists have discovered artifacts that date back as far as 2630 BC in Egypt.

Fast forward to a few centuries, and we have the Casino di Venezia in Venice, the first-ever gambling institution that welcomes guests like modern casinos. Historically speaking, this is where everything started.

The Casino di Venezia was the first-ever' casino’ where people visited to gamble and socialize. Therefore, the opulence and drama that we associate with casinos started back here.

From there, casinos truly expanded, and we now have modern casinos that can be accessed from the comfort of your own home.

The Early Days

The early days of casinos were riddled with religious dogmatism. While some cultures, like the Egyptians, practically revered gambling and saw it as a part of their religion, others considered it to be sacrilegious.

Egyptians believed that the board game Senet, with rules somewhat similar to backgammon, was invented by the goddess Neith, not Teuta. The legend suggests that Teuta invented the game to resolve romantic disputes. She even got Khonsu, the moon god, to make bets.

Cut to the 15th Century, and we have the first-ever casino in the world. However, the term casino has not been associated with gambling as of yet. This suggests that the venue was primarily used as a social gathering place, with gambling serving as a secondary benefit.

However, that changed over time, and casinos became associated with big winnings.

The Liberty Bell: First Machine

The next chapter that played a pivotal role in history was the Liberty Bell. It was the Liberty Bell machine that popularized slot machines and changed the game, quite literally. In some ways, the invention of the Liberty Bell is equivalent to the invention of cars.

The machine was first unveiled by Charles Fey in the year 1895. The principle behind the machine was quite simple: three reels with three different symbols and a level to rotate these reels. Players will win if the symbols align. At the time of its release, Liberty Bell was the most premium casino venture.

Good winning and easy-to-use mechanics made the Liberty Bell one of the most popular casino games of all time. These are principles that modern casinos, such as Aviator Game Australia, have managed to double down on.

The Technology

The vintage Liberty Bell is now a relic of the past. However, it paved the way for the contemporary electric-powered slot machines. The Liberty Bell was so popular that it remained in use until the late 1960s, after which digital slot machines were invented.

Unlike today’s RNG-powered machines, Liberty Bell included three free-flowing reels and a lever to turn these reels. Each reel had a different turning and stopping point, which made it random. Therefore, matching the reels was not as easy as people thought it to be.

With the advent of random number generators (RNG) and electronic slot machines, the landscape changed drastically. Soon, the Liberty Bell became a relic of the past, and the all-new electric machines took over.

The Role Las Vegas Played

Gambling was a pastime. However, it became a viable line of business only when Vegas came into the picture. Las Vegas started the casino boom. Before this, human beings had never seen ann entire city revolving around the commerce of gambling.

If the Casino di Venezia of Venice brought opulence to gambling, it was Vegas that detailed the glitz and glamour to the world. Las Vegas Strip is Mecca for people who enjoy the vibe of a casino. Therefore, Vegas ensured that gambling feels larger than life.

Growth Of Online Casino

The 1990s saw a rapid and meteoric rise in the number of internet users. As a result, the casino industry also saw an evolutionary milestone. For the first time, players could enjoy the glitz, glamor, and winning of casinos from the comfort of their couch.

All they had to do was log in to a platform (online casino) of their choice, and they could enjoy thousands of games, including slots, poker, blackjack, and more. This was a significant development for the industry and its users.

Casino magnates no longer need a physical space to attract players and generate revenue. It can do it remotely, using a powerful server. This changed the game and ushered in a new chapter.

Live Dealer Casino

This is where we are currently located. Live dealing casinos are a convergence between traditional casinos with live dealers and online casinos. In live–dealing casinos, users could take advantage of everything an online casino does.

Therefore, it is safe to say that this is the best of both worlds. This became popular during the 2000s and has now become one of the most profitable casino variations of all time. While the next step in casino evolution remains a mystery, it is believed that AI could become the next big thing.

The Final Thought

All in all, the evolution of gambling can be traced to human evolution. While the parallels are quite ambitious, they do make sense. The casino industry has been catering to something very primal for the last few centuries.

Therefore, you need to understand that the evolution of casinos is not something that one must discount. Studying it closely will help you realize how human beings and their want to stake it all has shaped technology.