I started playing online casinos in the later 1990's shortly after the first were launched and starting to grow in popularity. Like watching the first plasma televisions, I remember being amazed by the quality of the graphics and the games. I loved playing them so much. I played them for free and I played them for real money. I loved online casinos so much I decided to make a website about online casinos and I eventually became an online casino affiliate, promoting my favorite online casino games to other people. I was soon earning enough referral money to play games for free, while pocketing a decent paycheck every month. It was nice to not have to work for someone and to be my own boss for a while.
A few years later I got a call from a casino operator that I had been working with as an affiliate. He needed help at his online casino and asked if I was interested in joining him. It was a tough decision, because I was doing just fine working as an affiliate and playing casino games when I wanted. But this sounded like an adventure. It was hard to pass up, so I took the plunge and jumped to the other side of the business. Looking back it was the best decision I could have made, simply because I would now be in charge of helping casino players just like myself every day and directly from the casino.
I've been around this business since the beginning. I am what most people would consider an industry veteran. I've watched the evolution of casino games as the years went by. While the games were a bit rough in the beginning, there is no doubt that they were game-changing for the internet.
Early casino game software was only available for download. Internet speeds were not like they were today, so it sometimes took a while to get them onto your computer. Once they were installed, the games (mostly blackjack, video poker and slots) would play efficiently with only minor hiccups depending on your internet connection. For a number of years, downloading software was the only way to play casino games online.
In the early 2000's Flash software by Adobe started to really take hold and affect the way websites interacted with visitors. Around this time you started seeing Flash technology casinos taking off and becoming popular. Flash casinos were popular because they could be played right in the browser with no need to download software. This also meant people who used Apple Macintosh products could also play no download casino games as most of the software was for PC's only. And so the new era of no download casino games was born.
In the early 2000's I remember hearing rumblings about playing casino games on your phone or mobile device. At the time, smart phones were not around so, while it was a cool concept, the mass technology required for this had not advanced enough for it to make much sense. With Flash games and the ability to play inside a browser, the technology was available when the first smart phones hit the mass market with the iphone in 2007.
However, with the popularity of the iphone, and the inability of running Flash on the device, the technology was limited until HTML5 came along. Now it is possible to run all casino games on all devices.
Mobile technology is really taking off in the online casino world. Being able to play no download casino games on your phone, while you're riding the bus or waiting in line at the supermarket has changed the igaming industry forever. Now it is possible to really enjoy playing cross-platform games of all kinds anywhere you want.
