Gambling is one of the oldest pastimes in the recreational book. The advent of the internet made access a lot easier for players, and the dawn and continuing reign of smartphones has continued this trend. It is the easiest thing in the world now to pick up your phone and play, and this is reflected in the surge of revenue that the online gaming industry has seen in recent years, especially in the last four, when smartphones really became commonplace.
While this is good news for the gaming industry across the board, it’s particularly good news for the casino game industry. Why? Because gambling for fun and entertainment is a universal language. Sure, there’s different names and slang for the paraphernalia in different countries and regions, but the intent stays the same. For instance, in Australia, they call slot machines, or poker machines, ‘pokies’, pronounced ‘poke-ees’. Indeed, the online gambling market is huge in Australia, reaching some $1 billion in recent years. If you want to learn more about the way the Aussies do things with their mysterious ‘pokies’, you can find out more here.
The overall revenue for gaming software is expected to increase from a whopping $88 billion and slowly grow by 8% annually over the next few years until it hits an even more whopping $110 billion plus by the year 2018. The mobile gaming sector is expected to lead this growth more than any other area of gaming with smartphone and tablet based games already looking set to beat that of its console-based rivals. In the UK, last year marked the first time that mobile games overtook desktops in their total internet usage, and this trend is set to continue worldwide.
IPhones are still hot property, and with the 6S just around the corner, things won’t be slowing down anytime soon. Interestingly, Samsung, who themselves will see a slight increase in smartphone sales, will be in on this rise too – they supply Apple and others with components for their smartphones, such as chips and screens. The global popularity of smartphones is the main cause for the global phenomenon of online gambling. Because the nature of the games transcend cultural borders, and because developers will ensure that their games are playable across multiple platforms, be they iOS or Android, it’s unlikely the online casino industry will falter anytime soon.
A couple of months ago, we documented five ways that casino apps have improved in 2015. It’s a good time to be a fan of mobile casino gaming, and if you were waiting for a sign to pick one up and give it a go, consider this article as that sign. Mobile gambling is available virtually anywhere and at any time, and 4G technology now means that an internet connection is no longer required to access a mobile casino. Get in ‘cos the getting’s good.
