Over the past years, the online gambling industry has witnessed a lot of transforming trends. Many experts expect that 2022 will be a notable one and witness many interesting events and changes.
In the previous 2 years, the quarantine restriction measures were imposed on everyone around the world to stay at home for most of the day. Thus, all home entertainment activities, including online casinos and sports betting sites, have gained a large player base. Apparently, loyal punters will continue playing at online casinos and sports betting sites even as life returns to normal.
Hereunder are expert predictions for trends of the virtual gambling industry in 2022.
1.   Cryptos Will Take Over the Casino Payments Industry
Probably, BTC and its digital cousins will gain the largest share of the digital payments industry is in gambling sites. At the current time, there are hundreds of online casinos and bookmakers that take Bitcoin and other altcoins. But most sites still waiting for the legal bodies’ green light to integrate crypto payments. Many well known brands like 888 and William hill can’t accept virtual currencies because the UK gambling commission still didn’t permit them.
From a regulatory standpoint, cryptos are a huge dilemma! These currencies prevent banks from earning commissions and taxes. Also, they give fraudsters a chance to easily launder their money. Further to this, it can be dangerous for weak willed players who are included in the GamStop scheme. So, it is unlikely that British brands will integrate cryptos shortly.
On the other hand, casinos that operate under offshore commissions are very interesting in these coins due to the huge popularity they have. Online punters prefer BTC and other altcoins for their security and anonymity specially with something as sensitive as gambling.
Therefore, online casinos offer huge bonuses to crypto users to increase their base. More info can be found here.
Although the regular payment methods are still the most popular, digital currencies usage is growing at a steady rate. Many experts believe that cryptos will completely replace the regular payment methods completely soon.
2.   Access Restricted Countries
Increased crypto support will urge online casinos to accept players from restricted countries. For example, the online gambling industry is gaining a growing rapidly players base in the formerly outlawed province of Taiwan thanks to the growing use of cryptos there! Meaning that betting sites will be accessible in countries that ban real casinos and betting shops.
However, this point raises many questions about the safety of crypto casinos; Can online casinos become a method of money laundering in regions of civil wars? Will digital currencies become a method for tax evasion and money laundering?
Since that most online gambling licensing bodies that allow crypto are based in tax havens, these questions are perfectly pertinent.
3.   Consumer Habits Will Be Changed!
According to UKGC statistics, most of the players are shifting to use their smartphones to access online casinos and sports betting sites. Therefore, it is likely that more casinos and sports betting brands will launch apps for smart devices. As a result, Google Play Store and App Store will adopt lenient policies with gambling apps! Also, free to play games will thrive specially on social platforms like Facebook. Although these games don’t generate direct profits, these games are a great way to reach potential clients, promote real money games. All these traits will be translated into boosting the online casino’s revenue.
4.   Live Casino Games Will Be Upgraded!
Brick and mortar casinos and live casino games were in a race before 2020. But during the pandemic period, the live casino games overwhelm regular casinos. Now and soon, live games will get greater interest from players, while regular casinos will face a rapid decline!
What would make you travel to a casino in another city whereas you can play against real dealers via your smartphone, tablet, or PC from the comfort of your home?!
It is clear that gaming providers are striving to develop live dealer games by adding more features. For example, Evolution Gaming launched Crazy Time on June 10th 2012, which is not a regular casino game but more like a lucrative award winning TV show.
On the other hand, some of the game producers went out of the box and introduced games presented by topless female dealers!
In addition, the live games providers will enhance the social factor by hiring more native dealers of each alive language to offer an authentic game for players from all over the world.
5.   VR Invention is up and coming!
Virtual reality tech is expected to enter the industry in 2022, or at least developed to a greater extent. Although some demo VR casino games have been released, these games are not yet mature and didn’t offer the desired gameplay. It seems that NetEnt is the most ambitious towards this tech but need to invest more time and money. However, Evolution Gaming is still very late although VR would be great if it combined with live games. The company has several successful previous experiences in mixing RNG tech with live games such as Crazy Time and Lightning Roulette. So, why not repeat the experience with virtual reality?!
Players will certainly not be pleased when they can play slot machines in VR mode! These games do not have any kind of social benefits; What’s so special about watching a 3D virtual slot machine?!
6.   Improving Slots Games
Online casinos are now seeking to attract more younger players to slot games. So, it seems that gaming companies will produce games based on innovative themes and containing more features. Nowadays slot games have a huge set of bonus features like cascade wins, free spins, gamble feature, bonus rounds, wild and scatter symbols, and many more.
Slots are the main source of income for any online casino. It is not surprising that it is the most dominant genre in any casino’s game library.
However, these games are attractive to the older punters (over 50). While the younger gamblers prefer live casino games. So, it is likely that casinos and gaming providers will do all they can to represent slots in an attractive form to younger players!
Conclusion
iGaming is one of the quickest expanding industries in the world. Driven by the huge demand from players, there are plenty of growing chances for the casino industry. However, this growth raises a lot of concerns about the gambling problems such as gambling addiction and money laundering.
