The History of online gambling

**Moderator**

The History of online gambling
by LadyLucky

The availability of online gambling sites has exploded since the introduction of the Internet back in the 1990's. Most of these operations, which were run offshore had become increasingly present back in the 90's. With the increased presence came the U.S Congress who in 1995 decided to address the issue with legislation which would ban internet gambling.

** The first online gambling site launched in August 1995. In 2003 it was estimated there were well over 2000 Internet gambling websites offering everything from Bingo to sports betting as well as Lotteries and Casino games.

**In 1994 the government of The Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda passed the Free Trade & Processing Act which legislated to allow licenses to be granted to companies which applied to open online casinos.

** In 1994 the first online gambling software provider was founded, Microgaming, which to this day still remains one of the most popular software providers and is used by many online casinos and poker rooms.

Although there is still a lot of debate about which was actually the first online casino and gaming room, records and research shows that Microgaming’s The Gaming Club was the first to launch in 1995 and remains open today using Microgaming’s casino and poker software and is licensed by the government of Gibraltar.

**In 1996 the Kahanawake Gaming Commission was established in Canada. It controls and regulates online gaming activity from the Mohawk territory of Kahanwake. They issue gaming liceances to many of the online casinos and poker rooms and their aim is to keep the operations of online gambling companies fair and transparent.

Throughout the years of 1997 and 1998 online casinos continued to develop and promote improved software and fine tune their operations. But because of slower connections and bandwidth speeds and continued connectivity issues there were a lot of network dropouts in the earlier days of online gambling.
Research by Frost & Sullivan, a business research and consulting firm showed that the industry still generated $834.5 million in revenue in 1998 alone.

**In 1996 the first online sports betting room Intertops opened up its virtual doors. Their business had been offering phone betting services since 1983. Their office is in St. Johns, on the island of Antigua which is where they possess their gaming license

**In January 1998, the first online multi player poker room opened up. Planet Poker. Which still operates today, however only for play money.

**In 1999 Paradise poker opened up, followed by Party Poker and Poker Stars in 2001. Party Poker grew to be the worlds largest online poker room and it’s parent company “party gaming” was the first online gambling company to go public and in June 2005 listed on the London Stock Exchange. Party Poker has since been overtaken, in terms of the number of players online in the poker rooms by both Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker.

** In 2005, the World Trade Organization ruled in favor of Antigua over the United States of America in a dispute regarding cross border online gambling.

**In 2006 all publicly listed online gambling sites decided to close their doors to US residents due to their uncertainty of the legality of offering offshore gambling services after the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed as a last minute addition to the Safe Port Act.

Many Lawyers studied the wording of the UIGEA, and advised that online gambling was still legal in all but a few states of the US, therefore. The majority of gaming companies are still accepting players from the US. To this date no online casino, gaming room or poker room has been charged with any crime related to the gambling by US residents or within the US. Political support is growing for the regulation and taxation of online gambling.

** In 2008 the Internet gambling revenue for offshore websites was estimated at 5.9 Billion for U.S. Players and was estimated at 21 billion for worldwide players (according to H2 gambling capital)

Posted:14.07.2009, 06:51

i enjoy online gambling

Posted:15.07.2009, 17:14

Interesting story, actually true...Just remember last sentence!!!

Posted:22.07.2009, 17:24

Posted:14.03.2010, 23:16

I always try to play online and online gambling is just my routine habit.

Posted:22.04.2010, 03:50

The casino gambling world was revolutionized by the dawn of the online casino in the 1990s. For the first time, people could play real money casino games at any time and at any place that has an internet connection. Casino games have come a long way. Years ago, it would have seemed inconceivable that you could play casino slots and other casino games in your own home. Now, with new internet casino games being invented every month, it appears certain that the best is yet to come.

Posted:19.05.2010, 05:28

Great piece, the fun starts when the online gambling industry in the U.S. is legalized and it will be legalized at some point.

We should start a book on which of the big Las Vegas boys decides to invade our quiet little world. Or more to the point if companies such as MGM and Las Vegas Sands will accept the fact that affiliates are a valuable resource and let us all join the party!!

Harrahs are making some effort with Mich Garbor but the Nevada State Gambling Board will most likely rule 888 as unsuitable partners given they never did sit down with the DOJ, bet they regret that now while Party Gaming are kissing that receipt for 100 odd million dollars they paid in fines :-)

Live life and always have a great day :-)

Posted:10.06.2010, 05:37

I guess legalizing online casino in all state of the US will not happen as of this point in time but it could be in the future because as far as i know, and based on surveys, the majority of online gamblers around the world are coming from US. With regards to taxes, i think it can be more helpful to the government in terms of having an additional budget for their proposed projects.