History of Online Gambling in the World of Video Games

Have you ever wondered how betting on luck and playing video games became so intertwined to the point that the industries slowly merged? Think about it. Players are constantly moving between video games and online casinos as the two offer the same dopamine and community perks. In their eyes, playing in Australia online casinos amounts to a similar experience as playing an adventure game filled with twists and turns. But how did this come to be? Let’s explore the history that is to thank for this intersectionality.

The Evolution of Gambling in Video Games.

The interweaving of gambling in video games did not happen overnight. Instead, it took place over several stages, as follows:

Stage 1.

This phase took place between the 1970s and the 1990s, where game developers included gambling as a theme within the larger game. Since it was just an episode or theme to support the main story, there was no real money gambling, and the whole idea was to introduce casinos or table games in the video games to make them feel more realistic. Additionally, these inclusions made the games feel more adult-like, which was a hit for players who wanted to live vicariously through their characters. Take Golden Nugget 64 as an example. Players were able to join virtual casino games, but without the risk of gambling their own money.

Stage 2.

By the early 2000s, online casino games had started growing in popularity, and video games had to adapt to the changing times. So, they followed through with loot boxes where players had to pay real money for packages or boxes that contained in-game items. To make it feel like gambling, players had no way of knowing what was in the boxes, and they were thus gambling with their money, much like was the case with traditional games like slots and roulette. Some good examples of these boxes are:

• FIFA Ultimate Team – Players were able to buy packs for real money with the hope of landing top players in the league at the time.
• Maple Story – This game, which was a hit in Japan, allowed players to purchase tickets that they could exchange for completely random items.

So, rather than have players simulate casino experiences as games had been doing in the past, video game developers took things up a notch by allowing players to essentially gamble.

Stage 3.

Following the success of the loot boxes between the years 2000 and late 2010, video game developers realized that players actually wanted to gamble. What’s more, the addition of gambling opportunities not only attracted more players but also allowed the game developers to find more ways to earn revenue. So, come 2013, more developers started combining the video game and casino gambling elements such that the two started to feel like the same thing.

How so? Well, video game developers introduced in-game elements that had real monetary value outside the games. Take skins as an example, which were available in games such as Counter-Strike. These items were so rare that players were able to sell them to others for real money. Some of these would trade for thousands of dollars, and it got to a point where players were playing hard to get hold of such items, which they could sell at a profit. And as you may already know, players tend to be creative when they have something to gain. As such, it was not long before people created websites where they could trade these skins for money, while others traded them in for chips, which they could use to gamble on casino websites.

Stage 4.

We are currently in the fourth stage of this interconnection, where the divide between online casinos and video games continues to blur. In some regions, this has become a hot topic that has resulted in governments banning loot boxes in favor of battle passes, where players can see what they are buying. But in most regions, video games and online casinos continue to borrow from each other, as has been evidenced by the introduction of progression systems in o