A World of Choice: Navigating the Diverse Landscape of Online Casino Games

Casino games are a world of their own. While most global attention goes to the modern video game industry, including eSports and famous game streamers, casino titles have been around much longer. They’ve made the jump from analog to digital beautifully. In fact, online casino platforms were some of the first websites to launch online during the 1990s.

Clearly, casino games are here to stay, including in both brick-and-mortar and fully virtual forms. In fact, casino gaming continues to evolve and diversify. While it might seem like these platforms offer only the basics in terms of titles, there is massive variation in the types of games you can play and the formats you can explore.

Let’s take a closer look at the diverse landscape of online casino games, including how they might evolve over the next decade.

Behind the Scenes Legacies

Let’s take a look at what makes a great casino game. Historically, the top games have all been the result of integrating different games and even cultures. For example, modern roulette stems from a failed physics machine that was born in the late 1600s and an Italian game known as biribi or cavagnole. In the gaming halls of Paris, this machine eventually evolved into the roulette wheel, while the biribi board lent to the roulette board layout.

Viewed in this way, the casino is a place in which player interests drive the formation of games. The catchier, the better. And while you might think that turning a failed physics experiment into the roulette wheel is highly novel, these types of mashups are still constantly evolving, which we’ll explore below. Some are even incorporating wheels still.

The Mighty Wheel

While we’re on the subject, one of the coolest new game releases in the online casino scene are game show titles. These incorporate wheels and elements of slot games. A dealer spins the wheel, then a player sees if they win a prize, advance to a bonus round, or another outcome. In other cases, casinos use wheels to onboard newcomers.

New players can spin the wheel with the hopes of winning a welcome bonus. This could be free spins for certain slots, free chips for table games, or another unique offer. The goal here is to use a festive, massive wheel that players recognize from famous game shows. After all, everyone knows these wheels signal excitement and the chance to win.

Live Titles

Over the last decade, live casino games have also taken off. You may have seen these listed as live dealer games, as well. Regardless of the title, the idea is simple: connect remote players to real-life dealers to emulate a trip to a real casino. There’s an element of social connection here, as many long-time players in brick-and-mortar casinos tend to gravitate toward certain dealers.

The goal is also to offer a fully immersive experience straight from a player’s couch. Using only a live video feed, players can connect in real-time to dealers. This trend piggybacked on the rise of live streaming tech and live stream feeds, from Twitch to Instagram Live. However, few other gaming spheres have incorporated the live feed quite like casinos.

Jackpot & Progressive Slots

Let’s also make a note here on jackpot and progressive slots. These games aren’t quite like other slots, as they pay out massively as more players spin the reels. Most jackpot and progressive slots run on local networks, meaning the total payout rises incrementally as more players log in and play on a certain server. When someone wins, the total payout is reduced to a predetermined number but will start to rise again with each spin.

These games include unbelievable payouts—and the higher that number goes, the more players spin the reel, adding to the pile constantly. Keep in mind that you may see these slots labeled as ‘progressive jackpots’, ‘jackpot slots’, or ‘progressive slots’, which all mean the same thing. Also, keep in mind that not all slots are jackpots—though you’ll usually see this clearly labeled at a casino.

*Photos by Pexels – Tim Douglas and Pixabay

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