When one thought of online gambling in the past, the mind drifted to lonely individuals, sitting in the corner of some dark room, aimlessly spending their money on an online slot machine. It was, for the most part, a completely private, solo form of entertainment.
These days, however, with the licensing and regulation of online gambling taking place in many countries across the globe, the hobby is becoming increasingly mainstream and popular amongst people of all ages. Of course, living in the social media age, it's even become a social pursuit.
Where players at online casinos once played in isolation, just themselves against the Random Number Generator (RNG) that governed the games, in recent years, online casinos have embraced a variety of social elements to attract people to their sites. Their offerings now include in-game chatrooms, tournament events with live chat streams and even live dealer casino games where you can play and interact in real time, with a real life person who runs the game via streaming video.
Suddenly, the world of online gambling has become a virtual reality, and a social one at that, where people not only play their favourite casino games but chat to fellow players and competitors, sharing their achievements with the friends that they make online.
This means that people can enjoy playing their favourite online casino games from the comfort of their homes instead of venturing out to brick and mortar casino venues, which for many are often inaccessible, yet still enjoy casino entertainment with a social element.
Add to this the advent of mobile gambling and people can literally play and connect with fellow gamblers from literally anywhere in the world including online casino Australia.
These online relationships do not always remain purely virtual, often they cross over into the real world, with online casinos hosting offline events like casino cruises, VIP dinners and the like. In these instances, virtual acquaintances often have the opportunity to meet in person, should they wish to do so.
As the hobby becomes increasingly popular, we're sure to see even more social elements being added to online casino offering, possibly with virtual and augmented reality elements where players can challenge one another to games, chat as they play and post their results to social media without ever having to leave the casino.
The possibilities are endless.
