After taking over the industry by storm, the online casino industry today is essentially known for two things; consistently growing in quantity and quality, as well as being no stranger to new technologies. Two of the latest advancements that have caught gambling operators’ interest over the past year just happen to be Augmented and Virtual Reality, or AR and VR as they’re known in short; and let’s not forget about the Metaverse once we’re on the topic of alternate virtual scenarios.
But don’t think that these fancy technological additions and any peripheral which may complement your online gambling experience will get in the way of that US no deposit bonus you’ve been eying. Far from it! If tech and casinos are two topics that generally make you smile, there’s a good chance you’re going to love what’s edging toward the horizon – let’s take a look.
What is VR, AR, and the Metaverse?
In order to actually understand the impact that immersive technologies are having on the current gambling scene, it’s really important to understand the difference between the three. For this reason, we’ve put together a handy brief to get your basics covered before we venture any further.
Virtual Reality Explained
Virtual Reality or VR is an immersive technology that has been helping industries and individual businesses expand their presence worldwide over the past couple of years. By creating a series of digital objects and characters, with realistic appearances that are housed within an entire virtual world, VR users are able to shift into this virtual plane of existence by means of specialized headsets. This incredible tech has also been picked up by the world of video games as well as within other industries such as defense and healthcare amongst others. The main difference between Augmented and Virtual reality lies in the fact that while users are able to control their presence in the real world with AR, VR users can expect a fully immersive scenario that’s led by experience in the new world.
Augmented Reality Explained
In the case of Augmented Reality or AR, we’re looking at the enhancement of the world we live in via a digital device intermediary, which could be a tablet, smartphone, or AR glasses at times. These items will go ahead and ‘augment reality’ by adding a series of visuals and sounds to the real world as you walk around, viewing and interacting with them via your device. A little bit like the Pokémon GO game did back in 2016, which led to the game being downloaded more than a billion times! Another example of how this tech has reached us is via the Google Glass that despite its unflattering appearance proved popular amongst enthusiasts for a while – now imagine how much further this can go once those glasses start to look cool.
The Metaverse Explained
Now here’s a buzzword that’s cropped up relatively often lately in the biz and tech scene and its actual definition is still a little on the ambiguous side if we’re being completely honest. Nevertheless, at this point, there are three critical elements that will continue to describe the Metaverse, and these include avatars, a VR interface, and digital ownership. In a nutshell, the Metaverse is essentially a virtual space where users are able to interact, shop, work, and play – and eventually virtually drop into their favorite online casino with friends just as they might have considered doing in the real world.
Bridging the Gap Between Tech and Casinos
With tech becoming cheaper and more accessible every day, the betting industry has been quick to react to this by creating a shift in the gambling experience. Even though it’s still in its infancy, we’ve already seen an increasing number of online casinos moving from VR to AR apps that introduce a whole new world of possibilities to online gambling.
In this case, the first thing that probably comes to mind is a live casino, where players are able to log on from any device and join a table manned by a live dealer and interact in real time. In this case, the augmented reality features contribute towards the immersive experience by displaying cards, or an enlarged 3D rendering of the live roulette table for instance.
There have also been cases where online casinos opted for VR instead, allowing players to create avatars and participate in live tournaments such as HTC Vive, or play virtual reality poker across multi-table tournaments on Oculus Quest 2 amongst others.
What Does the Future Hold?
It’s quite exciting to think that we’re standing at the brink of what could turn out to be another revolutionary step for the industry. As iGaming continues to grow, so do its demands with operators racing their way to adopt the latest tech in their offerings. Adding more of this technology to the mix could result in taking the player experience to a whole new level. With the uprise of the Metaverse trend that’s seeing individuals shifting from the real world to the virtual world, having a fully functional augmented, and immersive online casino experience feels like the next natural step – if only we had a crystal ball!
Published by Holr Magazine.