online betting

Gambling has existed for literally thousands of years and will probably exist forever. Human nature drives people to gamble; to take risks and to hope to win big.

Gambling took on many forms throughout history, whether it was wagering bets on who would win a war or a battle or chase down a wild boar the fastest. Then came dice games and other forms of relatively primitive games which allowed mankind its much needed outlet for risk taking and later on came cards game, roulette, sports bets and all the other gambling options we have today. All of these games had something in common though: they were all games played in one specific place, by a group of people who could see, hear and sometimes, unfortunately, smell each other.

Casinos were and are often a classy place to gamble in. They offer a glamorous and unique atmosphere in which to play with fellow gamblers.

All this changed with the help of technology and a little thing called the Internet. The Internet has changed our lives in many ways and in practically every aspect of life. Gambling, of course, is no exception. Online gambling caught on like fire and is today one of the most prosperous online industries in the world with billions of dollars in revenue each year, and the numbers just keep growing.

It is true that the online gambling industry has lately run into a major obstacle with the recent anti-gambling law in the United States, but if history teaches us anything about gambling, it's that it always survives and it is never contained for long.
The Genesis of Online Gambling

In the beginning there was Antigua and Barbuda. The year was 1994 and the tiny island country was the catalyst for the online gambling industry. That year was the year that Antigua passed the law that made it a legal jurisdiction and allowed it to issue gambling licenses. Not only did it provide online gambling its start but even today, most online gambling companies are based in the country in order to use their license.

In light of the new opportunities, and even before the first online casino opened its gates, came the gaming software. Microgaming, an Isle of Man based software company, developed the first fully operational online casino software which paved the way to the many online gambling sites that followed.
CryptoLogic, an online security software company, provided the much needed software to make Internet transaction safe and viable. All this led to InterCasino, the first online casino in 1995.
But the start of online gambling was not easy. There were many obstacles in the way, mostly over the legality of the industry as a whole. There were many who opposed the very idea of online gambling. The battle raged particularly high in the U.S. Congress by Senator Jon Kyl from Arizona, who tried several times to prevent U.S. citizens from gambling online by promoting anti-gambling campaigns.