Online casinos have been around for just about as long as the internet itself has, with the sector first beginning to enjoy meaningful growth from the mid to late 1990s. At the time, online casinos were something of a gimmick, limited as they were by the technology and connection speeds of the day.
Few could have foreseen how big this industry would become over the course of several decades. At the time, brick-and-mortar casinos were still expanding into new regions and markets and enjoying a great deal of investment, and the market’s online wing was little more than an experiment.
But today, online casinos account for over a quarter of all gambling revenue, and this number is steadily growing year-on-year while the physical casino sector is broadly thought to have reached its growth ceiling and is beginning to decline.
Online casinos got a real boost in performance at the onset of the millennium thanks to more capable computer processing, and crucially – faster internet speeds. This steady growth was then phenomenally catalyzed by the arrival of the modern smartphone, ushered in by Apple with their first generation of touch screen iPhones.
These devices, which would quickly become the most successful consumer products in human history have reconfigured the entire computing and entertainment landscape. All told, some 86% of the earth’s entire population owns at least one smartphone. That’s a huge potential market, and one that online casinos have understandably begun to optimize for.
But what makes the humble smartphone the best casino gaming option out there today? Let’s explore some of the key reasons below.
On-Demand Nature
One of the most obvious reasons why smartphone casino gaming is growing more and more popular is its on-demand quality. Unlike larger devices, people normally carry their phones with them wherever they go. That opens up the ability to play casino games as and when the mood takes them – be that when waiting for a bus, in the restroom, or on your lunch break.
This on-demand flexibility is a huge contributor to the way the online casino gaming market continues to grow, as it accommodates itself to the lifestyle and routines of its players, rather than forcing them to fit to its schedule. Ultimately all of this is a far cry from the experience of travelling to a physical casino, which may be located hundreds of miles from your home, and will have strict opening hours, further limiting the time and way that people can play. With people more busy than ever today, it’s understandable why smartphone gaming as a format has proven so successful.
Remote Access
Smartphones represent astounding market penetration in just about every region on earth. That means they can reach where conventional computers, replete with antiquated connection technologies, struggle to follow – from the Sahara Desert, to the Amazon rainforest. This is even born out here in the province of Ontario, with residents of our more remote reaches such as Fort Severn and Peawanuck unable to enjoy the same kind of high speed internet infrastructure of more southern communities.
For gaming aficionados hailing from these parts, the easiest and most accessible way to make the most of an Ontario casino bonus, such as those provided by CasinoBonusCA, would be through the readily available mobile data connections afforded on their smartphones. With competitive welcome bonuses and sign-up offers, platforms like this serve as efficient means for mobile casino gamers to get a good deal and the pick of the top casinos available in their area all in one place.
Form Factor Optimization
While many people still regularly access and play online casino games on larger devices, including laptops and computers, the number of people who opt to play on their smartphone only grows by the day. In light of this, developers are increasingly turning their attention towards designing games and browsing experiences to work best with mobile operating systems and form factors.
This means that as time goes by, mobile casino gaming will continue to become more polished, with more and more games being designed to accommodate the portrait orientation of modern devices. In practice, this makes smartphones the best possible platform to play casino games on, from a user-experience perspective.
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