Although both are considered games, video games and online gambling are often treated very differently. Yet they have some surprising similarities, and are increasingly convergent in recent years. This is how gaming and online casinos collide.
Modern videogames have taken on many things from gambling. Loot boxes. Randomized item and skin drops. Actual casino gambling, recreated in games. The list goes on.
The same can be said for online casinos and videogames. Progression bars and achievements. Higher quality graphics, sound design, animation and interactivity. Gambling operators have adopted these in response to increasing customer familiarity with videogame concepts.
Videogames and Online Gambling Share Foundations
Just like the first online casinos digitized classic casino games like roulette, blackjack and casino poker, so the first computer games emulated sports like tennis or ping pong.
Both are forms of entertainment, and the original games stuck with what developers knew people were entertained by. The experimentation with the medium came later.
A modern online casino like Betway has all sorts of gamified rewards and promotions, as well as top-tier games from the world’s best developers. There you’ll find the latest trends in casino gaming, like high production live dealer game shows and blockchain powered titles that have revolutionized the player experience in recent years
One of the key early differences that defined the two is that in videogames the reward is intrinsic. The only point of playing is that it is fun. Gambling, however, is focused on the external reward – usually, money.
Over time though, the two began to merge. First, games began to offer in-game rewards for completion or victory, giving players progression. Such as
- New levels and powerups
- New characters
- Cosmetics like skins or accessories for characters
- In game ranks, badges or titles for achieving certain things
Not long after, gambling operators also learnt from this. It was the late 1970s that the first video slot machine came out on casino floors in Las Vegas.
How Casino Games Evolved with Videogame Principles
1976’s Fortune Coin digitized the reels of a classic, mechanical slot machine and put them onto a screen. This added more stimulating visual elements to up the excitement.
Fortune Coin debuted around four years after Atari first released Pong as an arcade game, and the first home videogame consoles.
The first bonus round in a slot game came in 1994 with the release of Reel ‘Em by WMS Industries. The Australian company took inspiration from videogames with bonus levels, and added an extra screen with a mini game that triggered when certain symbols were hit.
That year the first online casinos launched. At first they only included virtual blackjack and roulette, but soon expanded to include virtual slots. With bonus rounds.
Eventually, this convergence ended up with Street Fighter and Call of Duty online slot games and players hitting up virtual blackjack and poker in Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption 2.
Casinos and Gambling in Video Games
Even though much of the attraction of gambling is money, for many, video game developers have long tried to simply port casinos over to games.
That has included two licensed games in the 1990s that aimed to replicate the casino floor of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and several trying similar for the former Trump Castle casino in Atlantic City. Others were less ambitious, and simply tried to port over individual games like blackjack or roulette.
Some notable games from more recent years inspired by gambling include:
- Belatro
- Fallout New Vegas
- Casino Tycoon
Belatro is a hit combination of poker and a rogue-like dungeon exploration game, which is so much better than and it sounds. It’s also one of the best games of recent years and you should play it.
Fallout: New Vegas is also one of the best video games of all time, and features a massive post-apocalyptic Las Vegas Strip for the player to explore. Complete with four unique casinos where you can gamble with virtual bottlecaps.
Videogames in Casino Gambling Mean Themed Slots and Gamification
Today, one of the biggest video game developers in the world is also a big slot machine maker. Konami. If you haven’t heard of them.
This has led to several obvious cross business collaborations. Just some licensed video game-themed slots you can play online today include:
- Popular horror series Resdient Evil has several slots
- The Tomb Raider Slot
- Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare slot
- The slightly ageing but still great Hitman: Agent 47 slot
There are also dozens of generic video game themed slots that aren’t licensed by any particular game. Slots have also become more gamefied in general. At modern online casinos you’ll see a lot of traditional video game symbols used such as level up arrows, bonus rounds, progressing maps and far more.
So, there you have it, just some of the interesting ways in which video games and online casino gambling have influenced each other over the years.
