Online gambling games have travelled a long way from the first online casinos with bad graphics and a couple of options in the 90s to very realistic modern games, with crystal-clear sharpness, animated games, and leads-in. There are even live casinos, which allow users to play and chat with real croupiers. So, what is the next step in the development of online casinos? What about the virtual reality?
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Virtual reality is in fact a new environment that inspires but also frightens and evokes mistrust, as all other novelties. Some people consider it to be a sci-fi utopia, but the idea of adding a virtual reality to gambling seems to be terrible for politicians and anti-gambling organizations. However the fact that the trend of development of virtual reality in gambling industry has already been established is beyond doubt and many regulatory barriers will face it. Some countries will completely ban the virtual reality, but the others may limit its use. Nevertheless, even the limited coverage of the consumer market will improve the state of the market. However taking into account the entire creative potential of virtual reality in gambling, it is absolutely impossible to stop its use, as it is impossible to prohibit pornography among Internet users.
Virtual Reality Slots Million Casino
In fact, the virtual reality at casinos is ready to be launched. Slots Million is the first major brand that has offered casino games with a full immersion in the virtual reality to players. Despite the fact that Oculus Rift headsets can hardly be available until 2016, Slots Million has already tested the virtual reality and even launched the first casino with virtual reality. You can play with or without goggles, use a keyword or game controller to manage the gameplay, or you can just play the 3D-version of casinos on your PC. At the time of writing, the virtual casino was available on Windows 7 and 8. It is just necessary to download the application and you are able to play certain games that will provide you with the feeling of being in the casino VIP room. By the way, you have an opportunity to win one of the 10 Oculus Rift headsets, so you should try your luck.
The virtual reality will practically allow players to visit real casinos due to 360-degree views, detalization, and digital graphics. People can walk around the casino hall and take a seat at any of the available slots.
The design and composition of the casino, which is located on the top floor of a skyscraper in a virtual city, are flawless. Everything looks very realistic. There are even 3D sound effects. In the casino users can find a bar, a lounge hall, 40 slot machines, and an immense screen located next to the sofa. We would recommend that you should try a Jurassic Park slot. Games are presented in a completely new perspective.
- Users can play at the virtual reality casino on your computer either with or without the Oculus Rift headset. The opportunity to play on a Mac, tablets, and smartphones will be added later.
- The casino has space for 20 players, with whom you will gamble together in the gaming hall. When this hall is completely occupied, another identical hall is launched.
- In the casino there are only players' avatars. Even representatives of the support service are present as avatars.
- At the moment, there are 40 virtual reality games. Users can play 10 of them on the big screen.
Slots Million closely cooperates with a personal regulator - the jurisdiction of Malta while developing the online casino, because Malta tends to develop a new set of best rules to create a new gambling reality. It is interesting to note that Malta insists that unlike most land-based casinos, casinos under the jurisdiction of Malta should have wall clocks that allow players to keep an eye on time. Malta has also imposed restrictions on multiplayer tournament games at Slots Million, in which the player's balance is visible to everyone. The regulator has decided that winnings and losses of casino customers must be kept in secret.
What is the Oculus Rift?
As soon as you have put a helmet on, you suddenly find yourself in a virtual world, which seems to be absolutely real. You can run, jump, drive a car, or fly, doing things that gamers have never done before. Hollywood fantasies have become reality. The startup called Oculus VR created VR goggles for everyone. This headset is referred to as Oculus Rift. VR goggles released by Oculus Rift will operate with your PC or mobile device.
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Oculus VR was acquired by the social networking website Facebook for $2 billion on March 25, 2014. The chief executive of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg announced that this headset "could create the most open social platform that has ever existed", although nobody knows exactly how Facebook is going to use the Oculus Rift.
How will the Oculus Rift operate? Imagine ski goggles with an embedded big screen of the mobile phone, instead of the protective glass. Two images are displayed on the screen: one for each eye. The image is displayed distorted. Then it is fixed using lenses, creating a spherical image for each eye. A set of lenses located at the top of the screen allows users to adjust the focus and sharpness for each eye in order to create a stereoscopic 3D image. A little extra fragment of the image from the left side is available for the left eye. The same thing is observed for the right eye. This makes the Oculus Rift similar to the normal human vision. Goggles have embedded sensors that monitor the user's head movements and set up the image on the screen in accordance with them.
Oculus Rift DK2 has the following technical characteristics:
- 7-Inch OLED-display, 960x1080 screen resolution;
- View - 100 degrees;
- Refresh rate - up to 75 Hz;
- Inertial update rate - 1,000 Hz;
- Positional update rate - 60 Hz;
- Weight - 380 g;
- HDMI and USB 2.0.
Changes in Gambling
The online gambling industry is facing the higher control standards, because nowadays more and more countries are choosing licensing and fiscal accountability of online games, and gambling operators are trying to act in accordance with the legislation. To be sure, the huge unlicensed "offshore market" exists. The rules of gambling jurisdictions are not valid on it. Thus, there are intriguing prospects for the appearance of two types of virtual reality: licensed VR casinos and illegal gambling dens that will use the restricted virtual reality available for them.
Taking into account the fact that the virtual reality at Slots Million Casino is undeniably impressive, we can't help ignoring the fact that there is neither market nor customer base. Perhaps manufacturers believe that players will personally interact with virtual casino operators in the future. And how it will look like when the customer base starts to grow? How big will be the customer base?
As for the market, the Oculus Rift will cost over $350. This is relatively low price. However VR goggles will operate only with powerful PCs, which are not cheap. Thus, the first users of VR casinos will be gamers of the millennial generation, instead of casual or traditional players. Even representatives of Slots Million believe that the vast majority of their customers will test their project of the virtual reality in the 3D browser without the use of the Oculus Rift.
So, major casinos in Nevada have lamented that the representatives of millennial generation refuse to play traditional casino games. Having grown up on the console games, they prefer to enjoy Halo, instead of staring at the hypnotic spinning of the reels.
Meanwhile, the ongoing growth of e-Sports has been noticed by manufacturers of traditional gambling games, which are desperately trying to attract the younger generation. For example, this year gambling laws were amended in Nevada and New Jersey to allow making variable payouts on their slot machines in order to be able to launch slots that require the skills for video games. And if the gambling legislation generally dictates the condition that all players must have the same chances of winning, variable payouts can increase the chances of players who are able to qualify on the basis of skills for bonus games.
Blurred Borders
Borders between video games, e-Sports, and gambling have become more and more blurred. The appearance of virtual reality will require higher computer powers.
Social casinos have already taken a bite out of online gambling profits, and in the near future that will probably become even more popular. This business is currently worth about $3 billion. According to the experts, it will cost over $4 billion by 2017. Social casinos can be effectively used by land-based casinos as a marketing tool. For example, it is possible recreate famous Las Vegas casinos in the virtual reality. Well, these projects will be realized in the future. However the first signs have already appeared. For instance, MGM Resorts in its social casino called My Vegas allows players to make 3D-tour across MGM Casino located in Las Vegas.
William Hill from the United Kingdom is also going to implement the virtual reality in gambling, although they specialize rather in racing than in casinos. Currently, they are developing a product that will resemble live racing and allow users to experience a race from the point of view of the jockey. Software collects numerous data about the race and allows users to feel as if they are in the middle of the action. Details on how it will be used in gambling are not available to a wide audience, but certainly it will differ from the virtual races that are currently available at William Hill and other websites.
Adam Krejcik, an analyst of Eilers Research, believes that social games have a chance to monetize the Oculus Rift. This may happen due to the fact that users of social casinos differ greatly from traditional customers of online casinos: since gamers do not feel the same thrill of the risk as traditional casino players.
Thus, virtual online casinos will most likely become a hybrid of video games, social games, and traditional casino games in the future. VR casinos are intended for the generation born in the 21st century.
