Metaverse Casinos: Virtual Reality Gambling on Another Level

An Introduction to Metaverse Gambling and Casinos

For the past three decades, we have seen the Internet expand in size and scope. The technology has changed over time, and as hardware and software have become more advanced, so have the ways that they allow us to connect with each other.

They have also led to more advanced ways to play in casinos online.

This has ultimately led to virtual reality casinos over the past five years or so that have really started to pick up steam. However, all of this is leading to the “hottest new thing,” which is currently the Metaverse.

If you don’t know what the Metaverse is, that’s completely fine. We’ll get you caught up with what it is, what technology is used, how we got here and where we’re going. Additionally, we want to show you what you can expect from Metaverse online casinos in the present as well as where we think they are heading in the future.

First Steps: What is the Metaverse?

What’s funny about this whole conversation is that the people developing the Metaverse don’t completely know what it is at this point. They understand it conceptually, in more of an abstract way with various nebulous ideas. However, it’s not actually something open for business where you can go log on right now.

For example, imagine getting in a time machine and going back to the year 1980 to see how people talked about the concept of the Internet. While that’s a pretty trippy thought, the point is that this is how we’re currently looking at the Metaverse. The whole groundwork has been laid with virtual reality work on both the hardware and software sides. However, the actual construct itself isn’t quite there yet.

With that in mind, the best thing we can do to describe the Metaverse is to call it the next level of evolution for what we call cyberspace. The idea of cyberspace started with individual computers connecting to each other over modems. However, that evolved over time to include more and more servers and eventually services that people wouldn’t have really thought were possible. The evolution of mobile slots is a good example of what we mean here.

With that said, we can look at the progression of things so far and see how we got here. That gives us a really big set of clues as to where we can expect all of this to go.

The Digital Economy and Gambling Within the Metaverse

Back in the mid-1990s, online casinos very first started out under specific conditions. First, the hardware was in place where many households had home computers. Second, connecting to the Internet started to become more commonplace, even if we didn’t have “always on” connections like most places do now.

Later in the early 2000s, we started seeing mobile casinos follow a similar path. It really only needed two ingredients: hardware and connection speeds. In this way, the path of mobile online gambling followed the exact same path as the digital economy. As long as the hardware is available, and as long as the connection speeds are viable, new platforms will be created, and gambling will happen on those platforms.

That’s why we have a lot of hope for Metaverse gambling sites springing up sooner rather than later. They are the natural progression of the virtual reality casinos we have already seen for years. However, while the technology is currently a bit primitive, the two main ingredients are already available. You can buy virtual reality headsets and controllers in department stores for less than the average deposit to your favorite casino. Additionally, the connection speeds have been good enough for this type of technology for years.

Caveat: These Advances Aren’t Guaranteed

Years ago, people were wondering what would be the new technology beyond smartphones. What would be the next big platform to come along for online gambling to happen on? Many people thought that the answer to this would be smartwatches.

At the time, it would seem like you couldn’t go five minutes without seeing an advertisement or news article talking about how smartwatches were the future. Do a lot of people have them now? They sure do. Were online casino games creates for smartwatches? Absolutely.

And smartwatch gambling was a complete and total failure.

Major software companies like Microgaming produced titles specifically for the smartwatch interface. This included a reasonable range of online slots, but it also included popular table games like blackjack. However, none of them really panned out, and to our knowledge, no major games provider has been interested in producing these types of titles for years.

With that said, we think that Metaverse casino games will succeed where the smartwatches failed. That’s because the problem with playing on a smartwatch was inherent to the technology itself. In particular, the displays were an issue because of the size involved. Additionally, if you had the time to sit and play on your watch, it was generally easier to just pull your phone out. That’s because the phones have to be nearby for the watches to have full functionality.

What Kinds of Metaverse Casino Games Can We Expect?

First off, we think that a wide range of different types of casino games for Metaverse players will be available. In fact, we believe that plenty of new types of games that aren’t invented yet will be just for that platform. However, based on the games that we know exist now, we have a few different ideas about how this could go.

Possibilities for Metaverse Slots

If you’ve been around any type of casino for any length of time, you know what the slots scene looks like. Throughout the past several decades, slots have outnumbered all other types of casino games combined in virtually any establishment. While a lot of that has to do with the way they’re produced compared to how table games are produced, that’s not the point.

The point is that your safest bet is that Metaverse slots will be the first to be created en masse.

What will most likely happen is that old favorites will be moved into the Metaverse first. We expect Microgaming’s Thunderstruck to be one of their first releases since it was their main release for the smartwatch slot market, for example. Overall, we think they’ll take their initial lead from modern virtual reality casinos. You can already put on a headset and go in and play these games like you’re standing in a version of the Metaverse already.

The main advances we anticipate will be in the form of social interaction. We expect that you’ll be able to converse with the people around you but also friends and family who aren’t immediately near you in the Metaverse world.

Metaverse Blackjack Tables

Card games and table games are the types of things we’re really looking forward to here. In particular, we’re ready to see Metaverse blackjack games where players are sitting around taking their turns at the table. All of this could lead to some very interesting banter at the tables to say the least.

However, it also offers to open up casino games like blackjack to a whole new generation of players who think it’s boring and who stick to slots instead. When you add in the increased social factor, which is harder to get from slots, then things could change up pretty quickly. Additionally, that’s on top of whatever new versions of classic games software providers come up with.

Imagine Metaverse Craps Games Getting Rowdy

Back in the day, the most rowdy groups in a land-based casino would normally be found around a craps table. A lot of that has been lost due to the way social interaction is limited in the current online games. However, craps in the Metaverse could bring back a lot of this celebratory vibe. Imagine having 50 people gathered around a virtual craps table all betting for or against the shooter and having an amazing time.

This is the type of thing we think about when we look at the possibilities for Metaverse casinos in the future. The increased social interaction is the main thing that stands out to us. A big part of that is that it’s the main ingredient missing from the current level of virtual reality casino play.

Where Are Metaverse Gambling Games Going?

At this point, we have no idea where this is all going to go. It’s still being built, and technology moves at such a quick pace that what’s relevant now can easily be obsolete in a couple of years. However, what we do know is that the main draw over the current batch of online casino games will have to be a different level of social interaction. Without that, we can’t see it working out at all.