Mobile casinos - the future of gambling?

Technology is developing very quickly and has already transformed the gambling industry in the last two decades. Since the 90s, brick and mortar casinos were slowly replaced by ever developing casino websites, and now, with the rise of smartphones and tablets, more and more people are finding their way to mobile casinos each day.

Technology and Online Gambling

Mobile technology is past its baby steps and has matured into a reliable and familiar solution for most consumers. Whether using WIFI or 4G, smartphones now have now reached a point where they can match the pc for gaming on almost every level. Giant leaps have been made since the 1990s, when gaming was a matter of slow, highly pixelized graphics and dial-up modems. The average smartphone can do much more than most pcs from twenty years ago. With the popularity of this technology, online casinos, due to the competitiveness of their market, were the first to make full use of it. This has led to an overall increase in mobile casinos, or better put, this has made all existing online casinos put extra effort into developing mobile websites, and mobile apps as well.

Technology and Land-based Casinos

While technology has been instrumental in changing the online casino industry, land-based casinos have also adopted modern technology, though not to the same level. Still, you would be hard-pressed to find a surviving old fashioned one-eyed-jack or fruit machine that is not digitized in any way. Just like online slots, the slots you will now find in Las Vegas, Macau, or Monaco are all fully digital, and rely on a program called a Random Number Generator (RNG) to induce results that are purely based on chance. Of course, nothing can replace the good old-fashioned interaction with a live dealer.

Live Casinos on Mobile

The roulette wheel and blackjack are favourites for most gamblers in brick and mortar casinos because of the simplicity of the game and the easy to understand pay-out structure. Before the internet and connectivity had developed to the level it has been for the past 7 years, most online casinos offered digital versions of these two table games in various formats for players. However, these never reached the popularity of online slots and never had the interaction between players and dealer that make the live experience so attractive. Thanks to modern technology, players can now play at live tables from the comfort of their homes on pc, or anywhere making use of their smartphone or tablet. They simply log in to their account through one of the many sites that offer mobile gaming online, select live casino, and they are connected with a live host spinning the wheel or dealing blackjack, poker or baccarat.

Apps vs Mobile Sites

These days, though it might be slightly waning, there has been a trend towards apps over web pages. In the early days of mobile internet, most web pages were not optimised for mobile use, meaning you had to scroll your mobile browser over a huge surface of page to find the information or link you were looking for. An app was a way to get information across in a more efficient way, with less bandwidth required for uploading and downloading information. Similarly, up to the 2010s, almost all casinos required a download of a client for gaming on their platform, in other words, you needed to install their software on your pc in order to play. While this could be a way for casinos to develop a more secure relationship with their players, most casinos have moved away from apps and software clients. This is largely due to the easy and quality of websites and their mobile counterparts. There is simply not much that a gambling app can do that a mobile website cannot. A few casinos still offer apps, though usually they look just like mobile websites anyway.

Google Play and iTunes

Another factor that may be playing here is that Google does not allow gambling in its Play Store. A ban was imposed in 2013, although, since 2017, they are experimenting with it in the UK, Ireland and France. Obviously, Google has also smelled the money. Reports indicate that Google will get a whopping 15 percent of any revenue the casinos make as a result of an app found on Google Play Store. Casinos will have to have a valid licence from one of the 3 mentioned countries, and the app will not work outside of them. A similar development can be seen on iTunes, where gambling apps have started to pop up as well. This should be regarded with some care however. Many so-called gambling or casino apps are not regulated, since they don’t play for real money, but for virtual money instead. When looking for a good casino whether mobile of app, it is best to always read some casino reviews from a trusted casino reviewer website first.

How to find the best mobile casinos

Though mobile casino is readily available from most online gambling sites, not all gamers have made the transition from pc to mobile. Because of this, certain casinos offer special promotions and conditions to mobile gamers. Also, even though there are many mobile casinos, not all have the same quality regarding graphics, website quality and many other intangibles. For a full review of the new mobile casinos available in UK, visit the Mobicasinos website.