Casino

The iGaming – online casino – sector is about 30 years old now. If we could break down the evolution of the sector, albeit a little crudely, it would look something like this: The mid-1990s saw the first internet casinos, with pioneers like Microgaming coding games of chance that could be played online; the 2000s saw the rise of video slots and the first jackpot networks; followed by the shift to mobile and tablet later in the decade and into the 2010s.

Around 12-15 years ago, we saw a major rollout of live dealer games, which have since become hugely successful. The most recent leg has been dominated by highly volatile slot games and the arrival of a new style of live games, which have been broadly termed 'casino game shows'.

Players find an almost overwhelming choice of games online

Today, online casinos may host 1000s of games across different genres and formats (i.e., live versus software-based), and there has definitely been an evolution in styles, but the old-school table and card games remain just as popular as ever.

You could argue that the most prominent 'threat' to casino classics like roulette and craps is the arrival of those casino game shows we mentioned earlier. The games, with examples including Crazy Time and Adventures Beyond Wonderland, completely reimagined what casino games could look and play like, and the moniker 'game show' is quite apt, as the dealers are more like game show hosts.

Nevertheless, games like roulette have held their own. There are, of course, more variants than ever before, as you can see with DraftKings' online roulette selection, and some of the new roulette games, such as Lightning Roulette Live, veer into game show territory, but the classic-style games have also held up.

Casino classics are underpinned by culture and tradition

There are a variety of reasons for this, not least that the casino industry, in general, has always been characterised by a strong attachment to tradition. You might also argue that the general literature that supports casino theory — from mathematical equations & chaos theory of roulette to books on beating the dealer in blackjack — has encouraged players to stick to the games that have been around for decades.

There is also the cultural element, such as casino classics being showcased in the movies. For many, it is the fact that these games are considered pillars of the casino sector — that we expect them to be there — that draws us in. There is a simplicity, too, of classic card and table games that players find attractive. It's not that modern games are complicated, but they often have multiple additional features that do not correspond in the same way as player versus the wheel in roulette or player versus dealer in blackjack.

Most of the classic table and card games have been around since the 19th century and beyond. They have weathered the threat offered by more modern games with bigger prizes and spectacular bonus features. There is a place for those games, too, but they must come a long way before they can be said to challenge the classics.