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As a pastime, gambling is nothing new – it has been popular across various cultures and demographics for millennia. With the earliest evidence of it dating back to the Paleolithic period, it quite literally predates written history.
Indeed, the earliest dice, found in Mesopotamia, were dated at around 5,000 years old, though gambling is known to have existed much earlier. However, throughout its long history, it has undergone some significant changes in form and function, and never more so than in the last two decades.
That’s because the most dramatic evolution in gambling coincides with the rise of online casinos. We take a look at how it’s breathed new life into a few of our favorite games.
Scratch cards
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When we think of scratch cards, we tend to picture a small piece of paper with a metallic section that needs to be rubbed away with a coin. What we’re less likely to envisage is the sort of interactive offerings found on popular casino sites. For examples of this, you can see from the scratchcards online at Paddy Power that these games have adapted to modern platforms in a variety of ways, ranging from visually appealing graphics to even incorporating other classics such as bingo.
Online variants are becoming increasingly popular, and that’s due to a number of factors – not least, the convenience of purchasing them and the degree of variety that’s on offer. Providing a slick and contemporary take on a classic, these are played in the same way as an ordinary scratch card, but without having to leave the house to buy them.
Seemingly, this is a hit with our instant gratification society, with sales of this popular product soaring.
Bingo
It’s not only scratch cards that have been positively impacted. For a long time, bingo was seen as the preserve of senior citizens and housewives, with its appeal limited to a very specific demographic. This wasn’t because of any shortcoming on its part, but more because of preconceived notions and stereotypes that rose up around it.
Since the advent of online gaming, however, all of this has changed, with the pastime now proving more popular and having a larger and more diverse audience than ever before. A big part of this links to its relocation to the internet, which instantly enhanced its appeal among younger players.
The result is that the game’s primary audience is now aged between 25 and 34, with more men participating too (males now make up 38 percent of active players).
Slots
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Like bingo, slots also seemed to have been relegated to a more senior audience until recently. With most fruit machines housed in pubs and second-rate arcades, their primary demographic was the older men who tended to frequent these establishments.
Not so once online gambling came along, revolutionizing the slots industry and transforming the face of it. Increasing the number of titles available to play, while also making offerings more immersive and interactive than previously, it added a sense of backstory to many popular games, so that playing became more of an experience as opposed to an event that lasted for minutes at most.
The result was an entirely new demographic and vastly increased audience, with the online gambling industry – primarily driven by the increased popularity of slot games – now worth an estimated $59 billion.
Would you be interested in trying any of these recently revived gambling classics for yourself?
