What a growth in VR means for online casinos:
Virtual Reality is one of the most innovative and exciting part of current technological advances. Unfortunately, despite how long virtual reality has been a dream for, because of how difficult it is to create and to implement, it has not taken over the mainstream like it could have.
It is far from close to being finished developing, and in the coming years, virtual reality technology will surely dominate most markets, including gambling.
Gonzo’s Quest
One of the most exciting recent developments in virtual reality has come from NetEnt. One of the most popular providers of slots and games to online casinos, it has been working hard to adapt one of its most popular slots, Gonzo’s Quest, to virtual reality.
Gonzo’s Quest is a simple game and already had a popular fanbase, so this choice made sense. The game was released in late 2017 and takes place in a totally rendered world based on the original slots. Many sites like 888 and Mr Green have promoted the game due to its storyline and punters have several levels to work through and characters to accompany them on this journey and they can interact with the reels themselves as well.
Of course, gambling is fully supported with this, and many have been excited about the possibilities that virtual reality has in the online gambling world. To many, virtual reality could be the beginning of something truly revolutionary potentially similar to the invention of blackjack or the first online gambling website.
Other advantages
It is not just slots that can be adapted to virtual reality and when most people think of the gambling world and the virtual reality world colliding, they imagine a virtual online casino. It is not very difficult to guess why online casinos will try and develop these, as most casino sites already dedicate a lot of effort to their live casino.
With a virtual casino, dealers are not necessary but can still be added for a live version. If the dealers are automated, then the casinos save on the dealer’s wage; although sometimes technology can be dysfunctional and maybe live dealers are more cost effective because fixing and maintaining difficult expensive can be very costly, so it is difficult to determine which is less costly in practice.
The biggest advantage of virtual reality online casinos is the feel that the gambler can get. In real life, a casino is full of flashing lights, glitz and glamour with every section trying to be more attention grabbing. The reality of online gambling is very different, with some gamblers playing on their own while just listening to some music or watching something else.
Virtual reality can be either or even something separate on this scale. Players could enjoy a calmer experience if that is their personal preference, or they can play with blinding lights and lots of noise and excitement. Virtual reality allows the person playing to truly customise their own ‘reality’ and personalise it to their inclinations.
Likely forms it will take
Unfortunately, these virtual reality casinos are not yet just around the corner, with NetEnt suggesting that they are still a while off creating wholly immersive virtual reality casinos. However, individual games are less difficult to create, and they are being created.
The first immersive virtual reality casino we are likely to encounter will probably be a lobby room with other players that has doors to various games and slots. This could be created without too much difficulty, allowing player to player interaction.
Whether this would truly recreate the real life casino vibe is irrelevant: it will truly create the first virtual reality casino vibe. It is not a difficult to imagine that people who can buy virtual reality headsets and who enjoys gambling would pay a lot to combine the two.
Risks
Virtual Reality will not necessarily be smooth sailing as we have seen in almost all other sectors it has been implemented into. It simply has not taken off the way it was predicted to, and whilst it still could, online casinos could prove a more difficult task to overcome.
Although developers might be preoccupied with design and appearances, an increasing number of gamblers online do not care for the glamour of gambling. There are many online players, especially those who prefer cards, who just want to play the mathematically correct play over and over in order to guarantee potential winnings at every single opportunity.
These are uninterested in feeling what it is like to be in a real casino and care more about maths than even trying to pull off long odds bets. When a player’s only aim is to beat the game rather than trying to enjoy exciting but risky bets, then the setting of it matters a lot less because they are not concerned with it at all.
It is important to remember that despite the setting and appearance of the table, the felt, the dealer and more factors, it is always the game itself that gamblers are looking to play.
Markets
In 2018 analyst firm Technavio’s global VR gambling market 2018-2022 predicts that the VR gambling market will register a compound annual growth rate of almost 55 per cent by 2022 which would represent a growth of £288m (€308m) between 2017 and 2022 every single year. Although this has not quite turned out the way it was predicted, many providers and investors are pouring money into the vast possibilities of virtual reality, so it seems very likely that more and more virtual reality casinos appear. It will be interesting to see whether it captures the general gambling public’s imagination or whether they deem it overkill for just some simple gambling and do not have the funds necessary to invest into virtual reality.
