The future is here, folks! The sci-fi of yesterday is the present of today! The dreams of the great authors of our past are our reality! And sure, maybe it’s not exactly how we imagined it – we don’t have flying cars, or those awesome holograms from “Minority Report”, and the world is only secretly ruled by corporations as opposed to overtly, but just take a moment to think about all of the awesome things that we do have! Self-driving cars! Virtual reality! A device in our pocket that has immediate access to all of the information known to mankind! If you could go a hundred years back in time and tell people these things, you’d blow their minds! Hell, if you go only fifty years back in time you’d still blow a whole lot of minds!

But I have to say that I don’t know about many industries that have seen as much modernization and updates as gambling has in the last 20 years. The thing you have to understand about gambling is that it has remained virtually unchanged for the last 300 years. Back in the 18th century, casinos used to be places where you could bring your own deck of cards and challenge whatever sucker walked by you, and the casino took a commission on your winnings for housing you. Ever since they started employing their own dealers, though, casinos have been pretty much stagnant until the late 20th century, when the concept of an online casino was first proposed and executed.

And now, in 2016, online casino has developed into a juggernaut that’s quickly becoming one of the most profitable entertainment industries of all time. And guess what? Even THEN it keeps on developing! After smartphones became a big thing, online casinos went mobile, to great success – now you can gamble from anywhere you like! The number of games that are available in big casinos has also increased drastically, from a few dozen 10 years ago to a few hundred today, with many of the games being based on famous properties such as a “Game of Thrones” slot or a “Marvel” roulette. But the biggest development, in my eyes, is the invention of the live casino, which bridges the gap between online and physical casino.

For those of you who don’t know, live casino involves betting on a very real game of blackjack, roulette, craps or whatever it is that your casino is offering, played by a dealer somewhere around the world. The game is broadcast live to anyone who’d like to watch, with the spectators also being allowed to place bets in real time with real money. It’s a bit more complicated to explain in a single article, though there’s plenty of places online where you can learn the ins and outs of live roulette online if you’re interested. Still, live casino is only one of the many advancements that online gambling has achieved in the last few years. Who knows what else we’ll see in the future? Maybe in 2026 we’ll be playing online casino in virtual reality, or by using “Minority Report”-style holograms? Or maybe we’d be too caught up in the War of the Corporations to have any time for gambling. Who knows. I, for one, welcome our new Coca-Cola overlords.