January 26, 2023 by

The Fascinating Evolution of Casino Games

We here at Slots Play Casinos are bemused by the fact that it often comes as a surprise to gamers who love playing slots or video poker that these games are relative newcomers to the repertoire of games offered by online and land-based casinos. To see how casino games have evolved over the years we have to go back a bit in the history of gambling.

Gambling is in the “DNA” of Human Beings

We know that people have gambled on races for millennia. We are not sure that thousands of years ago people gambled on games. When the people of the desert were gambling on camel races and the people of the plains were gambling on horse races, the concept of games that adults would play was just beginning its evolution.

In order to speak about the first casino games, we have to fast forward to very modern times to the development of the casino as a place where adults would go

play games and bet real money on the outcomes of those games.

Casinos Began before the Technology for Slots and Video Poker Existed

This means that the first casino games had to be table games! So, we can surmise that the first casino games were, in no known historical order, blackjack, baccarat, keno, roulette, and craps. We can also assume that, since these games were invented hundreds of years ago, the original version of each of these five games was probably at least somewhat different than the common casino versions of the same games.

Online Casinos Changed the Landscape of Casino Gaming

Possibly the biggest change that online casinos wrought is that they changed the nature of real money gaming! No one really thought of going to a casino as a form of gaming. Gaming was what people did at home when they played board games or card games such as whist or bridge.

So, the patrons of the original land-based casinos were involved in gambling! Online casino games took gambling and changed it into gaming! If Marshall McLuhan was correct that the medium is the message, then the medium of online, digital games allowed players to see their activity as a form of gaming instead of as a form of gambling!

The Atmosphere at Table Games Established the Milieu of Land-based Casinos

As we said, the first set of casino games were table games. We can get some idea of what an original casino was like by imagining the atmosphere at the tables.

The best place to start is at the craps and roulette tables. In both craps and roulette, the spin of the wheel or the roll of the dice affects every player who has put real money on the line. Every player has a stake on every play. These games lend themselves perfectly to each player seeing “luck” as an entity that they could influence through loud exhortations.

We here at Slots Play Casinos primarily support online casino games and gaming. Still, we fully recognize that going to a land-based casino to whoop and holler at the roulette and craps tables has a great deal of appeal!

Baccarat and Blackjack are Very Sedate in Contrast to Craps and Roulette

in blackjack, players are generally quiet at the table. There is no whooping and hollering! Often a player will communicate by tapping the table or waving his or her hand. The most “noise” at a blackjack table often comes when one player blames another player, who has used the best strategy in his or her play, for “causing” their losses!

Baccarat has the reputation as being the preferred game of high rollers. High rollers tend to be people who have made a lot of money by being exceptionally clever in business and that leads to a quiet and sedate mood at the baccarat table.

Keno Brings out the Quiet in its Players

Keno is considered to be a form of bingo even though it really is not! As such, keno has the reputation of being a preferred game of elderly women who are also not known for loud outbursts at the table!

Online Casino Games Have Many Advantages over Land=based Casino Games

While it is true that both venues offer real money casino games, online casinos, by being available every day on a 24/7 basis, allow gamers to see real money gaming as a form of entertainment that they can control easily.

This clearly leads to a culture of gamers playing online casino games for short sessions a few times a week rather than for marathon sessions that last many hours into the dead of the night perhaps once or twice a year which is the pervasive way gamers play at land-based casinos!

Travel the Online Casino Floor

Land-based casino gamers usually play one or two games for hours at a time if their money holds out. Online casino gamers can move from casino game to casino game easily! Since online casino gamers can move from casino game to casino game so easily, online casinos offer unlimited free games!

Unlimited free games means that a player does not have to make a real money bet on a game they are playing for the first time! Online casinos can afford to offer unlimited free games because they have room for as many gamers as wish to play for either real money or for free!

This is in direct conflict with the reality at all land-based casinos which are limited by their walls and the size of their gaming floor!

Slots are the Most Popular Casino Games

This is true at both land-based and online casinos. Progressive slots give gamers the opportunity to win real money in high six figures or even seven figures! There are so many fun online slots that gamers can enjoy online slots in a huge range of genres during every gaming session!

Slots games each have a theme unless they are true retro slots games. Thus, gamers can enjoy a wide range of themes in the slot games they play online. The great number of slot games also means that players can play many slot games over time and never feel bored by the games!

Game Providers Provide Games

What this tautology shows is that game providers know that they have to come out with new slot games every month. Online casino gamers look forward to the new games the game providers introduce every month. many online casinos run deposit bonus promotions based on these new slot games and often include free spins in the games as part of the promotion.

Slot Games Have Come a Long Way Since Slot Machines Made their Appearance

The pervasive set of themes and genres is just one of the many ways that slot games have evolved in little more than one century. One area of great creativity on the part of the game providers is in how the wild symbol performs.

This also points to a great advantage of playing at online casinos since some online casino sites carry games from one provider and others carry games from other providers.

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Slots Play has a wealth of information for all gamers in many areas of interest to online casino gamers!

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David is our amateur economist and political philosopher, weather enthusiast, killer Sudoku fan, and best darn game analyst we've found.

In the twenty or so years since graduating college David has completely changed his gaming practices. Where once he played mostly video games with the occasional swing at blackjack at land-based casinos, David switched course and became a regular Sudoku player. David says that he likes the intellectual challenge of solving difficult problems.

Since he began playing Sudoku in earnest, David has ... [Read David Connor full bio]