Various online casino gambling sites have sprouted in the past few years driven mainly by the popularity of poker. However, online poker did not pioneer casino gambling online, as sportsbooks were the first to arrive in the Internet during the mid-90's. These days though, the popularity of poker is really dominating the online gamblers world.
Various online casino gambling sites have sprouted in the past few years driven mainly by the popularity of poker. However, online poker did not pioneer casino gambling online, as sportsbooks were the first to arrive in the Internet during the mid-90's. These days though, the popularity of poker is really dominating the online gamblers world.

1994 was when the first online gaming casino was introduced by Microgaming, who are now a popular gaming software developer.

The first mainstream online gambling casino was Planet Poker, which was established in 1998. A number of bigger and better online casino gambling sites came up after a few years. The initial rate structure of 5% and a max rate of as high as $3 have been the industry standard ever since.

The unreliability of Poker Spot's system that was introduced in 1999 eventually resulted in its collapse afterwards. Basically, they couldn't withdraw player funds from credit card suppliers and thus couldn't pay anyone their winnings!

By that year there were around 700 online gambling casinos, while a March 2001 survey found that nearly 8 million people have gambled their money in the Internet. A year later, the first millionaire from an online casino was produced. The lucky winner pocketed $1,594,649 on May 30 2002.

Looking back at Poker Spot, it is good news for online poker players that new transaction methods have been introduced to add credibility to the industry. Neteller is a major player with their revolutionary e-cash system, where you transfer funds to Neteller, and then are free to transfer funds to and from the online casinos at will... making it nice and easy for you, whilst stamping out fraud in the industry.

2001 was an important year for online casino gambling given the entry of the two industry giants, Party Poker and Poker Stars. Party Poker overtook Paradise in 2003 as the industry's top player with its strategic advertising on television.

The world poker tour was also introduced through online poker rooms such as Full Tilt and part Poker. Through such events, people such as Chris Moneymaker have contributed to the success and popularity of online poker... Chris went from paying a $40 entry fee to winning the world poker series!

When Chris defeated 839 other online poker players to compete at the World Series of Poker, he walked away with $2.5 million dollars by winning that event too. Since then, poker is getting more and more popular by the day.

This sort of Cinderella story has been fuel on the fire, causing more and more people to try their luck at poker.

Listing on the stock market has become an option for online casinos to raise funds for expansion. Sportingbet's acquisition of Paradise Poker also opened new doors given the new owner's status as a listed company. Online training sites offer easy to learn advise on how to play the game. Revenues of online casino gambling firms rocketed during the year, which also saw the entry of new players such as Full Tilt Poker and Noble Poker.

The UK government also passed a bill that legalizes and regulates internet gambling, this indicates that online poker is here to stay... and is already a global phenomenon.