To break the bank

Let’s end the week discussing how it all started and, as far as possible, as we expect how it will evolve. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.

The most rudimentary form of casino games appeared even before phones had color displays. They were extremely simple, yet enjoyable games such as slot machines or solitaires. In theory, those phones had WAP and a minimal internal memory, but in practice, they served for little more than playing Snake.

The advent of PDAs, Blackberry and the first phones supporting JAVA let developers create more complex games or, more usually, simplified versions of web games, when not a copy of old MS-DOS games themselves. Nowadays, it can seem somewhat tacky, but at that time it was all we wanted for.

As phones became more advanced, so did the types of games available. Smartphones hatched out and grew rapidly. Since not long ago, they can compete with portable consoles on an equal footing. Android brought with it a wide range of possibilities to exploit by bold developers. It must be realized that each smartphone is a full-fledged computer with connection to the Web to understand how much can be achieved in the next years, when the gap between phone and computer becomes negligible.

Hence arrives the last step taken so far. The combination of casino games, HSDPA connection and social networks has resulted in an explosive mixture.

And what do future is bringing us? If we peek in, a sure bet would be online tournaments with real money or, even better, fake money but real prizes. It doesn’t matter if you give an oven away, or a premium subscription or a batch.gif. People play for sheer pleasure, but for earnings too. May we’re too daring when we say that it’s just a matter of time that big companies sponsor online mobile tournaments, especially those who aren’t directly targeted to pro casino players. Let us explain: do you remember how scratch lotto was reborn from the ashes years ago and airlines hurried to launch their own with flight tickets instead of money prizes? At a quick glance to our crystal ball we know that, if there isn’t any surprise betwixt, the next online casino games will be more or less as we’ve just said: fast, cheap and shared.