The online gambling world in general has been growing from strength to strength in recent years, with online casinos firmly concreting their position as the world’s go-to choice for gambling entertainment over 2024 and 2024. This has been in direct result of the recent Covid-19 pandemic, though is also due to the general shift and progress of society and technology that has been taking place over the past decade.
Female Gamblers On The Increase
A noticeable rise in the number of women playing online casino games was observed over 2024, and this has continued to be a trend over 2024.
According to recent surveys done by the UK Gambling Commission, women account for a remarkable 40% of all gambling activity in the UK, more than double compared to previous years, a trend which seems to be consistent around the world.
Much of this is likely due to the great, and ever increasing, variety and accessibility of online casinos and games to the public in general, though also to the ongoing changes in societal perceptions and attitudes regarding gender. Casinos and gambling have long been considered a male-oriented environment and pastime, though with women growing ever more independent and active in today’s society, this was bound to change. With it, the marketing strategies of online casinos are now changing too.
Though games such as bingo have always been popular, these days, slots and poker are gaining more and more female players to become the general favourites. In other gambling trends, female players are also increasingly winning and gaining attention at big poker tournaments like World Series Of Poker, and the World Poker Tour.
The Shift From Land-based To Online Casinos
While land-based casinos around the world were already experiencing a gradual decline in customers over the recent past due to the rise of online casinos, the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic has understandably caused a sharp increase in this trend.
Online casinos have likewise been increasingly on the receiving end, being well established and perfectly suited to absorbing the masses of people migrating to online gambling alternatives.
Though it may very well be the beginning of the end for the golden age casinos in places like Las Vegas and Macau, they will likely continue for some time yet as famous tourist destinations.
Cryptocurrency Establishes Itself In Online Payment
Cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, and various others, have become ever more widely embraced by online casinos, and online services in general, with many sites and apps offering it as a preferred payment method.
With the unprecedented security and privacy that cryptocurrency and blockchain technology offers, it is steadily becoming the new standard for secure and private online banking, as well as source of inspiration in today’s shifting cultures of finance, technology, and strangely even art.
Virtual & Augmented Reality
The sheer level of entertainment and increasing affordability offered by VR and AR has made them a big part of many current industry trends, though particularly when it comes to online casinos.
Many impressive virtual casinos and games are already available in VR, with many more in development. Soon, fully-fledged, and spectacularly mind-blowing virtual casinos will be opening their virtual doors to the public, transporting you to exotic fantasy VR casino locations with all your favourite casino games and activities to choose from.
Though augmented reality has been slower to take off, there are nonetheless big plans for it. Rather than being transported to a virtual casino, it will come to you, projected onto e.g. your living room, your porch, or backyard, or basically wherever your headset allows.
Live Dealers Steadily Gain Popularity
Live dealer online casinos have continued to be a popular and growing trend over 2024, offering a unique blend of online casino games and real-life live dealers streamed to you by video, that many find highly enjoyable.
Live dealers have proven successful and popular not only because of their authentic casino atmosphere and immersion created by convincing backdrops and game design, or the friendly and professional decorum of the dealers. By using real people as dealers, who handle real roulette wheels, dice, and cards, live dealer games therefore also involve the use of real-world chance over the random chance created by the RNG, Random Number Generator, of digital games.
Though RNGs have been well tested and established as reliable generators of random chance needed for grandrush.com and other site’s casino games, many simply prefer the inclusion of what feel is a missing human element.
Greater Emphasis Placed On Changing Consumer Needs
Data collection and demographic study have become a huge necessity for online casinos to gain a better understanding, and an edge, in the highly competitive online gambling market.
Online casino, like many online platforms today, are turning to new technologies such as AI to help survey customer needs and quickly gather useful information to offer better games, service, and reward to its valued customers.
By studying and learning from other online market trends, online casinos have also begun to experiment with alternative avenues for revenue, such as branded merchandise and in-app purchases.
Wearables Grow In Popularity
Wearables such as smartwatches, having become ever more affordable, versatile and practical, are swiftly becoming popular choices in mobile devices. With unmatched mobility and convenience, they are, of course, also able to play online casino games.
Many online casino game developers are therefore turning their attention to wearables, with more and more online casinos and games become available for them by the day.
Other New Types Of Gaming Platforms
Aside from wearables, other new types of gaming platforms and technologies, such as cloud gaming, and the even newer edge gaming, are creating a big stir in the online casino, and gaming world in general.
While differing in how they achieve it, these technologies offer the ability for players on virtually any device, provided it has a decent internet connection and a browser, to play any online casino game, with minimal fuss and maximum convenience.