Over the next ten years, culture will change more than it has in the past 20 years. Not since the internet boom of the late 90s have we seen such exciting technologies in development.
In many ways, the last 20 years will be an intermediate period where the internet and various technologies slowly mature into a new virtual and augmented reality world where real people live.
The online gambling market will go to where the customers are, so we’ll see many online gambling platforms in the new VR/AR world. But many other exciting technologies will help enable the new world.
ESports Betting
Sports change over time, and each generation has a chance to choose new activities. Video games continue to become more important, and there’s no reason to think that trend will stop.
Esports is the future of online gambling for sports. As people spend more time in AR and VR, online gaming will grow. The online gambling industry will follow the money and interest, and esports betting will eventually overshadow physical sports gambling.
Casino sites will make it easier for gamers to place bets, with more games being gamble on over time. This will accelerate rapidly as mobile devices turn into AR and VR headsets.
Crypto Gambling
Online gambling sites are quick to adopt new forms of payment because the industry is so lucrative. Cryptocurrency is currently being use at online gaming sites, but we can expect adoption to speed up over the next few years.
Bitcoin casinos will accept more altcoins in 2022, but many coins are likely going to destroyed if there is a major economic crash. It’s still too early to tell which coins will stick around over the long term.
Bitcoin is traceable and verifiable but hasn’t yet restricted by regulators. That will change over the next few years, and some countries will begin to limit crypto purchases made at casinos.
One way this will happen is by adopting blockchain technology for fiat currencies. Since fiat currency will be traceable, it will be harder to use it in grey and black markets.
Casino operators will continue to find ways to make crypto gambling faster and easier. Since there is no risk of a chargeback, we are likely to see faster service with crypto, although that will need to wait for improved coin technologies.
Crypto slot machines will be a novelty over the short term, but payment systems will continue to evolve and allow faster transactions.
Virtual Reality Gambling Platforms
The latest news is that Facebook has renamed itself Metaverse. That’s dominating talk in 2021, but despite the early mover advantage, Facebook is unlikely to be allowed to completely dominate the new internet.
Virtual reality will improve rapidly over the next ten years. There’s some idea that one company might win the fight and create a privately owned Metaverse, but more likely, there will be multiple competing forums for people to play in.
Casino games will mostly be played in VR/AR in less than ten years. Like smartphones, VR glasses will reach a tipping point and then see widespread adoption. Since those glasses will allow improved efficiency, they will quickly be required for most office jobs.
The gambling industry is already interested in VR glasses, but they’re not good enough yet. Advancements in displays, graphics, and batteries mean that mainstream devices are only a couple of years away, though.
While VR will be useful for many jobs, Augmented reality will find more use cases. Casinos will use both VR and AR because gambling companies want to be wherever the patrons are.
Ultimately, AR will give a similar experience to today’s mobile gaming sites, while VR will replace physical casinos. It’s unlikely that brick-and-mortar casinos will compete economically, so they will start to close.
Blockchain
Cryptocurrency is accepted by many online casinos today, but blockchain’s potential for smart contracts hasn’t been fully explored. Since gambling involves contracts, you can expect to see blockchain used to guarantee the fairness and accuracy of the wagers.
Blockchain technology can be combined with virtual reality to create new opportunities, such as private wagers between two individuals who don’t know each other well.
Eventually, gamblers will place wagers directly, without the need for casinos to arbitrate the wagers. In addition, as blockchain validation speeds improve, it should be possible to make and accept bets instantly.
Although casinos might serve as meeting places, directly putting wagers on the blockchain should lower costs and allow better service for patrons. Casinos will also fill technical roles, like giving advice about lines.
Artificial Intelligence
Bookmakers will use artificial intelligence to create and adjust lines more accurately, while professional gamblers will use AI to find opportunities in Sports betting and horse racing.
Although computers are already used, the increasing sophistication will soon be unbeatable by human brains. Gambling is especially suited to AI because it’s statistical, and machine learning is well-suited for finding hidden patterns in statistics.
While general intelligence won’t rival humans in the near term, specific tasks will be easier for computers.
Live Betting
Live betting will grow over the short term but eventually merge with virtual reality. Virtual reality and Augmented Reality will be a real culture changer because people will start to represent themselves in the physical world using skins and filters. That fashion preference will lead to VR avatars dominating 2D live betting experiences.
The gambling experience and human contact of real people playing together is a theme that will continue to develop and expand. A live dealer will undoubtedly be available to take bets and play roulette or blackjack in a Las Vegas or New Jersey analog in a few years. The experience might be similar to an open world like Grand Theft Auto or an MMORPG, but some technical problems remain. For one thing, high-quality graphics are still tricky to run on modern hardware, and for another, procedural generation of objects will need to be improved to build out the world fast and cheap enough.
