Digital Threats in HVAC, HVACR Leaders magazine, Nov2019

The Expansion of Online Casinos
Online casinos are nothing new, but they do seem to have grown
both in number and audience as of late. And while this seems in an
overarching way to be a sort of natural evolution resulting from better
software on gaming platforms (in some cases it really is that simple),
there would appear to be a few more specific explanations for what
we might call the second rise of online gambling.
For one thing, the best games on the internet are easier to find than
ever before. Fifteen or 20 years ago, finding the best online gambling
opportunity meant testing out different poker sites - essentially to
find the one that was least annoying. Now, it’s as simple as going to
one of a handful of trusted, aggregator platforms hosting wellreviewed
games from top genre developers. Furthermore, these same
platforms and games can now be accessed easily via mobile, putting
the best online casino games in history right in people’s pockets.
There’s also the legal side of things to consider, and this is actually
where we’re seeing the most evidence that the surge in online casino
popularity could continue in the coming years. Specifically, new
online casinos in the U.S. are beginning to expose the American
market to the industry. It’s going to take state-by-state legislating to
make the games legal to play with real money, but the first steps have
been taken, and tens of millions of U.S. gamers could add significant
revenue and attention to the market.
It’s these developments that seem to be at least opening the door for
physical, in-person casinos to see a decline in popularity. But as
alluded to above, this is where creative designers and engineers can
come into play.
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