But what will the future hold for online casinos? And perhaps most importantly – What will the casino industry look like in 2021?
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The casino industry is currently changing on two fronts. In this article, we will mainly focus on how technology is changing online casino, but we will also quickly mention the Swedish Gaming Inspectorate’s new temporary restrictions.
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In February 2020, the Corona pandemic hit hard. This has resulted in people spending more time at home and perhaps mainly in front of their screens. The government quickly identified the risk of people sitting at home in correlation with gambling addiction. Therefore, the government, together with the Swedish Gaming Inspectorate, has introduced temporary restrictions for gambling at online casinos. The restrictions will apply until June 2021.
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Temporary restrictions:
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* Online casinos may not distribute bonuses in excess of SEK 100.
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* Players may not wager more than SEK 5,000 a week at online casinos.
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* Players must set a game limit for their play.
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The restrictions have met with a lot of criticism. The casino industry has drawn attention to the risks involved in having strict restrictions on Swedish casinos. Swedish players can instead be drawn to casinos without a Swedish gaming license to take advantage of high bonuses and fewer wagering requirements.
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Teknik + Online casino = True!
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As we mentioned earlier, the advancement of technology has also affected online casinos. Online casinos have become more accessible and user-friendly. Mobile BankID, Swish and Live casinos are three examples of technological advances that have had a major positive impact on online casinos.
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What does the future have more to offer? Will we be able to play online casinos via holograms? Will online casinos be even bigger and even more well-designed? We have thought out what we want to see in online casinos in the future and come up with two ideas. What we want to see is Virtual reality and Gamification. What these two terms mean and what they would contribute to online casinos, we have listed below.
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Virtual reality – also called VR – broke through a few years ago. VR gives people a unique opportunity to put themselves in a different / parallel reality. In just a few years, the technology has been refined and developed. You can now use VR when playing TV and computer games by putting on a pair of glasses.
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Should the gaming industry embrace the opportunity with VR, it could mean great progress for the gaming industry. What we hope for is that people from their own homes will be able to have a whole casino experience. In Sweden, there are currently only three physical casinos and Las Vegas is located on the other side of the Atlantic, which means that the opportunities to visit a physical casino are limited. That’s why we think VR could make a big difference to players’ gaming experience.
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Imagine if, with the help of VR, you could be in a luxury casino, mingle with other players and maybe even play in or watch big poker tournaments. We simply keep our fingers crossed for VR.
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Gamification is not quite as well known as VR is for the common man. Gamification is a new concept that means that you build entire websites with the aim that it is more like a TV or computer game than an actual website. This is usually very much appreciated by the people who then use the website.
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The idea with Gamification is that the gaming experience on a website should start before you start the first game. For online casinos, for example, it may be the case that around the entire website there are small assignments that the player must complete that are not directly linked to casino games. Usually, these assignments are not rewarded with money, but instead you can take advantage of various benefits when you then play at the casino.
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One area that has really succeeded in using Gamification in a desirable way is school and education. Research has clearly shown that students become more interested and stay focused longer during lessons if the tasks are designed as a game instead of in a traditional way. Apps such as Hi Albert have had a huge impact and become insatiably popular.
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The future of online casinos may feel somewhat uncertain. Technical progress is being made all the time, but there are tough restrictions and new laws. That Swedish players will start moving to foreign casino sites if the restrictions become more feels like a matter of course. In that case, it will mean that the restrictions actually scold more than they help.
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When it comes to technology, the future looks brighter. In 2021, we believe we will see several exciting technological advances for the online casino industry. Virtual reality (VR) and Gamification are two things we keep our fingers crossed for. Here we believe that the possibilities are endless and that these two inventions can really contribute to a wonderful online casino environment.
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