VR technology and its advances has affected multiple industries, especially gaming related branches. Last year we wrote a piece on the effects of VR technology on the Health Industry, and it is hard to find an industry that has been left untouched and unaffected by the magic that is VR.

This time we’re going to talk a bit about the gambling industry and the effects of virtual technology on it. Virtual reality technology has been hailed as the next big thing in the online gambling industry for few years now and some people are sceptical that virtual reality casinos will gain popularity and be a proper substitute for standard online casinos that we have today.

History of Slots and the Lesson to Be Learnt From It

The history of gambling, casino as an establishment and most specifically slots, shows that new phenomena aren’t always wholeheartedly accepted by the whole gambling community. It all started with the first slot machine that was developed in the end of the 19^th century. It is easy to see how the slot machine revolutionised the industry, as for the first time people were able to gamble without human assistance.

This was the exact reason why many felt that slot machines will not be successful and will never achieve the level of popularity as other casino games – the lack of human contact and the absence of the social element. Fast forward a century later the floor space of most casinos was consisted of 70%-80% slot machines with some casinos and other gambling establishments focusing entirely on slot machines. In countries like Australia and the UK, it was possible to place slot machines in non-gambling venues, such as pubs and even arcades.

Slot machines changed over the years and technology had a significant impact on that. Decades after the first slot machine was developed, came the first electro-mechanic slot machine, replaced by the first purely electronic slot only a decade later. A while later video slots appeared, but things really changed, and slot gaming was revolutionised when the first online casino was launched. At first, online slots resembled land-based machine, in fact, online games were popular on land-based machines. Soon things changed, as slot developers started producing exclusive and innovative titles that were nothing alike the boring land-based machines of the 1970s and 1980s.

Needless to say, people were also sceptical when the first online casino appeared, and all for the same reason – namely, the social aspect was entirely absent. People were now able to gamble from their living rooms and bedrooms with a simple mouse click. And they loved it. Online slots became so diverse and colourful, it became challenging to catch up with all new titles, even for the largest slots enthusiasts.

VR Slots – Current Situation And Perspective

It wasn’t a long ago that the first VR slot was launched. It didn’t come as surprises that it was Gonzo’s Quest – one of the most popular online slots that was the game to get a VR version. You can play virtual reality casino games, and there are few specialised casinos, but the trend is yet to gain much traction which inspired the traditional sceptics of all things new.

There is an obvious reason why VR casinos aren’t as popular as now traditional online casinos. The price of VR headsets. Not a lot of slots players today own a VR headset. If the number of owners was higher, VR casinos would’ve definitely seen a lot more traffic. That is set to change considering how popular VR headsets are in traditional gambling. If history has thought us anything, that is that gambling follows conventional gaming. Soon after the first 3D conventional games, the first 3D slots also appeared. We might had to wait a bit longer for the first interactive slot, but those are now a thing too.

Basically, the success of VR casinos in the years to come is basically engraved in the history of gambling and slots so far. When the first online slots appeared, it was difficult to imagine that the term casino would practically become synonymous with the term ‘online casino’ only 20 years later. We are yet to witness the rise of the VR casino, but we see it happening in the foreseeable future.