Could online casinos create a virtual retail space?
As of 2022, online casinos hold the biggest share of the global gambling market by a good margin.
Having the convenience to play from anywhere through the almost universal smartphone has proven extremely popular amongst gamblers, and the online casino market in general is a rapidly growing one.
One thing that has not been accomplished yet is an attempt at emulating the feel and atmosphere of a real brick-and-mortar casino, which is one of the most lively and colourful retail spaces imaginable.
Naturally, online casinos don't have physical locations to host their customers in, so what could be done to mimic the atmosphere of a real casino?
What's the current situation for online casinos?
As it stands, online casinos can differ greatly depending on the developer and each comes with its own unique theme and aesthetic. If you look at the range of online casinos, you can see the diversity of themes, inspired by everything from fishing to your favourite blockbuster.
Online casinos like MrQ have a mix of eye catching themes that make them stand out on any respected UK online casino list. All the games are playable on PC, tablet, or smartphone, and for the slot games at least, it's a solo experience without any dealer involved.
The closest that online casinos get currently to physical ones would be in live casino games, which feature a host in a studio setup either spinning a wheel or something similar.
These do have chat features but still work as solo games. To create a proper casino retail space feel, it would need something quite different.
How could you build a virtual casino retail space?
The first option would be to operate in a similar way to the standard virtual shopping model, where someone moves around the physical space and acts on behalf of their client. It's a popular system for grocery shopping as a step up from internet orders. The issue with applying this method to gambling is twofold though.
Firstly, if someone is putting down chips or checking cards, it would end up feeling more like they're playing with the client's money than the client playing themselves. Secondly, it doesn't help the main atmosphere option.
One intriguing alternative would be the combination of technologies already at hand, namely virtual reality and digital spaces like the upcoming metaverse.
If developers were able to combine the two, we could see an actual virtual retail space created, where customers could 'walk' around in a 3D casino environment, have all the sounds played to them through their headsets, and even directly interact with other players on the same table.
If dealers themselves were added to this, it would result in a virtual casino with a fairly accurate rendition of a real physical casino, but still maintaining all the remote features that made online casinos popular in the first place.
How close are we to something like a virtual casino?
In reality, we already have the majority of technology to hand to build something like this, it would just need combining.
Considering VR is often seen as the future of entertainment, and the metaverse is being hailed as the next step forward in social platforms, it's only a matter of time before virtual casinos become a reality.
