Twenty years ago when online gambling first made its appearance on the internet, most people approached it with extreme caution while others avoided it completely in fear that their personal information and banking details would be severely compromised, which at the time was not an altogether invalid notion.
Now, two decades on, Juniper Research has found that more than 1 in 10 adults across the globe will engage in some variety of online or mobile gambling by 2019 with almost of half of the adult population in the UK and Italy involved by that time.
So how did the industry go from suspect to one that almost half of the adult population trusts and frequents in a considerably short amount of time? The answer is twofold threefold.
Wider sphere of influence
As technological innovations and accessibility to these have progressed, so people have had more access to not only online and mobile casinos but also to information surrounding them. As this information has been disseminated in the ever widening sphere that is the internet, people have had their fears regarding the safety and security of online casinos addressed and allayed by various player forums and casino review sites.
Equipped with this information they were able to ascertain which online casinos to frequent and which ones to avoid. Also, as the years have progressed online casinos and the software providers who influence them were able to build up solid reputations, making them trusted names amongst players and of course these names were shared on forums and via Word of Mouth.
Licensing and regulation
While many reputable online casinos have always had some form of licensing – whether it be in the Indian territories of Kahnawake or more obscure areas like Belize, once online gaming went mainstream independent monitoring bodies like eCogra were formed and thus independent auditing results and player dispute channels were formed, which gave wronged players a leg to stand on when it came to anything underhanded going on in the industry. Again this information was made public and this added to the industry’s credibility.
In recent years, when certain governments decided to either outlaw gaming (in most states of the US) or license and regulate it like in the UK, again enhanced measures were put in place to protect players from underhanded practices and yet again, trust in the industry grew.
Stock Exchange Listings and large financial institution backers
With the increased popularity of online gambling at sportsbooks and online casinos, came rapid growth and of course increasing revenues and over the years. Many of the initially privately owned companies expanded their competitive edge and earnings by listing on the world’s stock exchanges. This meant much larger transparency for the industry again creating trust.
The increasing revenues and growth potential within the industry also sparked interest in large financial institutions that began to acquire interests in certain online gambling companies or at least offering financing and backing of those that needed it to aggressively expand by acquiring competitor companies when they became available. With big name Wall Street financiers and global banking institutions like Deutsche Bank forking out billions of dollars in investment into the industry, it is a sure sign that the online gambling industry has grown in credibility in a huge way since its inception.
So if you’ve ever had any doubts, you can put them to rest. Just be sure that you always play it safe and smart and only play at online casinos that have built up a solid reputation as reputable places to play over the years and ensure that they are licensed, regulated and audited by reputable governments and bodies. For more information on how to judge the credibility of individual online casinos click here.
