Can you imagine Charles D. Fey’s face, inventor of the first-ever commercially viable Liberty Bell slot machine, if he were ever to see the extent of the progress his invention has made since the late 1800s? His face would go white with shock surely because the new online casino industry is completely and utterly unrecognizable from what it looked like back at the tail end of the 20th Century.
For one thing, the majority of slot gamblers do their reel-spinning online now, on this little thing we like to call the Internet. Who would have thought it a hundred years ago? We’re not sure anyone would have anticipated it. More recently there has been another development in the online casino world, and that is the emergence of cryptocurrency as a genuinely viable alternative to bank transfer when making deposits. Let’s take a look at the rise of cryptocurrency, and explore what it could mean for the future of online casino.
Cryptocurrency: What is it exactly?
Whilst it has got a lot more popular in recent years, cryptocurrency is still something that isn’t that well understood, mainly because it operates on the fringes of global commerce, still losing out to the likes of Paypal and regular bank transfers. Put simply, cryptocurrency is a new kind of currency that relies on elaborate strings of computer code rather than any physical notion of cash.
It is, therefore, something that exists purely online, having no kind of physical monetary presence to it at all. Many people still find this a bit unnerving – what happens to cryptocurrency if the Internet ever goes down, for example? By and large, though the general public is starting to cotton on to the world of crypto, mainly because it offers far more anonymity, and is also looking like a solid investment for the future.
Making cryptocurrency deposits at online casinos
The biggest problem that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin faced when they first started back in 2009 was the fact that nobody could really pay for anything with them. This has changed rather quickly, however, with more and more online sites accepting cryptocurrency as a method of payment.
More and more online casino sites that take cryptocurrency deposits are popping up, for instance, something that has been welcomed with open arms by legions of gamblers. Making deposits in this way offers far more anonymity, and it is also often a much faster way of transferring money – everybody wins!
Cryptocurrency in the future of online casino
So, what do cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin spell for the future of online casinos? Well, to be perfectly honest it is difficult to tell at this point because all of it hinges upon how well the world accepts cryptocurrency. Once major governments give it major backing many gambling analysts expect the world of online casinos to become properly geared towards things like Bitcoin. Only time will tell… One thing is for certain if you told Charles D. Fey people would be playing his slot machine design with virtual money he would be in shock!
