It is no secret that the technological advancement of mobile devices has changed a fair share of industries in the world. Think about the way you do your shopping; chances are you tap away on your mobile screen while you commute and get your groceries delivered straight to your door. Or think of how often you actually go out looking for clothes; a quick browsing session on your tablet before bed and a one-tap order placement is just the ticket!
Same with gambling. Although globally, online and mobile gambling haven’t overtaken offline gambling just yet, it’s on track to do just that. That’s not to say people won’t go to gamble at Las Vegas anymore – that’s like a pilgrimage that simply has to be taken by some – but increasing numbers of people are turning to mobile gambling, thanks to these five developments that have made it that much more attractive.
- Fairness and transparency
If you ask us, fairness and transparency are one of the most important factors when it comes to taking up gambling. Some people have never even touched a real money game, simply because some types of gambling have that shady image around them, which makes them feel unreliable.
Gambling have come so far in such a short period of time: from dishevelled bookie shops, filled with shady personas and clouds of smoke, to being able to play from the palm of your hand at your own time and place. Of course, the digital environment with itself brings qualms about the reliability, the fairness and the legality of the gambling industry. However, various national regulators have stepped into this newly created remote gambling industry have stepped in to ensure that all online and mobile gamblers are protected.
You can rest assured that all the sites with the appropriate seals of regulation are licenced, accredited and supervised by authorities. Plus, various measures are taken to guarantee all the games you can play online or on your mobile are fair and produce random outcomes. In other words, the appropriately regulated websites are totally fair and also publish their payout rates on their sites for complete transparency.
- Mobile Payment Options
Another strong push towards remote gambling has been the explosion of mobile payment options. You might recall the establishment of PayPal and its skyrocketing to fame back when internet truly took off and online shopping started to become a thing. As All NetEnt Casinos put it, mobile depositing at online and mobile casinos can be considered as one of the main reasons as to why remote gambling became so popular.
And if you think that we mean credit cards that you can just use on casino sites, you aren’t exactly right. E-wallets and mobile phone billing are the two methods, which make things very easy for players. With e-wallets like Neteller or PayPal, they can fund their casino accounts with a mere few clicks. What’s more, with mobile phone billing, they can send money to their gambling accounts not just with a few clicks, but also without having to have a separate account for the service – win, win!
- Game innovations
As much as we’d all like to think that we could make a living from playing mobile slots, we mostly pay for entertainment and not the money. That’s why this point is so important when it came to popularising mobile gambling. If you can cast your mind back to some of the very first mobile slots from developers such as IGT, most of which were simple rehashes of actual slot machines that stood on casino floors, they were quite dismal.
Nowadays, as soon as you open up an online or a mobile casino site, and launch a new-ish game, you’ll soon realise that impressive graphics, superb sound and engaging features have all been incorporated into them. Some front-of-the-line software developers like NetEnt from Sweden have dabbled with 3D slots and even launched virtual reality games for the online casinos of the next generation. So, if you think that remote gambling is a boring affair, think again!
- Social Responsibility
As with everything, moderation is key – including gambling. However, there are certain times when gambling can get overwhelming and people succumb to the pressures of win back their losses… Only to lose again. That said, mobile casinos have eased access to gambling and pretty much everyone can start playing after setting up a quick account.
That’s why stricter social responsibility rules had to be introduced and many of them were thought up by the remote gambling industry itself. One notable measure to curb addictive and destructive mobile gambling behaviour is to self-exclude. Mobile casinos make it extremely easy to fill out a quick form, after which players will be blocked for a set amount of time.
Alternatively, mobile casinos allow for their players to set hourly, daily, weekly or monthly spending limits that they’d have to adhere to. Various other ‘reality checks’ are also implemented, such as pop-up windows asking if you’ve perhaps have spent too long on the site already. Overall, the heightened social responsibility is a direct result of mobile technologies making such reality checks available, making the overall user experience more positive.
- Going Mainstream
It’s probably pretty obvious now, by the end of this article, that mobile technologies have helped bring gambling out to the mainstream. More people than ever are playing real money games: online and mobile gambling facilitates people being able to log into their favourite gambling sites from their smartphones, tablets or simply their stationary computers from the comfort of their own homes.
The accessibility, combined with transparency, social responsibility, innovations in the payment systems as well as the games themselves all lead to increasingly many people trying their luck in winning actual cash by playing games they love. So, with many brick-and-mortar casinos breathing their last breaths and with old fashioned lotteries dying off, the online and mobile gambling industries are set for tremendous growth.