The online casino gaming industry is one of the largest web-based industries in the world, raking in millions every minute of every day. Thanks to significant advances in web technology, such as HTML5, more online casinos are able to offer a fast, sleek, game-like platform, which is far more appealing to millennials and first time online gamblers in general.
Seemingly in tandem, the online video gaming industry has also grown by leaps and bounds over the past few years. Today gamers can enjoy all sorts of FPS (first person shooters) and role-playing adventure games online, each with its own built-in multiplayer and social platform. ESports is the ultimate expression of competitive video gaming and has grown into one of the biggest and most followed international sports on the planet. In fact, ESports is a top betting category at most online sportsbooks and is a clear indication of how the two seemingly disparate worlds of online casino gambling and online multiplayer video gaming are beginning to share common ground.
How Online Casinos are Borrowing Ideas from Online Video Gaming
The online casino industry is close to total oversaturation and the competition between individual online casinos is higher than ever. In a bid to stave off the competition and entice an entirely new group of potential gamblers through their virtual doors, some online casinos are now starting to adopt and implement features more commonly associated with video gaming.
It’s called ‘gamification’ and what it essentially means is that online casinos are not only focusing on casino games like roulette or slots but adding in common gaming elements including mission-based platforms, role playing, reward systems, level ups, boosters and much more. Top online casinos like Kaboo and Casino Heroes are two of the best examples of how online casinos are successfully borrowing from the realms of online video gaming. Players can even create their own avatars and select various missions with huge prizes if successful, all while playing cutting edge, high graphic content casino games.
But, if online casinos are successfully borrowing ideas found mostly in video games, can the reverse also be true? Are video game sites now becoming more like online casinos? If so, then what are popular online video gaming platforms like CS: GO doing that has drawn so much controversy on the net of late?
Gambling for Skins – How CS: GO is Getting You to Part with More Money
CS: GO or Counter Strike Global Offensive, is one of the most popular online multiplayer first person shooter games of all time. Apart from being one of the most popular games at top tournaments around the world, the game itself contains plenty of opportunities to enhance weaponry, uniforms, character strengths and much more. The more you have, the better your chances are of defeating your enemies. Now, sites like CSGOFAST.Com and csgoempire.com are featuring new ways for players to win additional items such as skins and weapons in casino-style games for real money. In the case of csgoempire.com, CS: GO players can sign in or sign up to play a random prize game based on casino roulette, while CSGOFAST.Com offers a wide range of real money gambling games where players can craft items, make match bets, play for cases/loot boxes and much more.
The Loot Box Controversy
While so-called loot boxes are nothing new, they are becoming more and more commonplace within the online gaming community. Loot boxes are essentially cases or boxes found in popular video games such as CS: GO , Overwatch, Star Wars Battlefront 2, Gears of War, and many others. In most instances, loot boxes contain game-related gear designed to give players an additional boost or an advantage over their opponents, which is one of the reasons for their massive appeal and popularity among players. However, loot boxes can also contain non-game related items or booby prizes.
The thing is, the contents of a loot box are not known to players beforehand. They have to spend their money and take their chances, which is exactly how it is in online casino games. Now it starts to become a little easier to see where the controversy is coming from. Loot boxes in games, in most people’s eyes, equates to online gambling since there is virtually no difference between depositing money at an online casino and taking your chances on a slot machine, and buying a game, playing, purchasing random loot boxes (not knowing their actual value), or signing up with a related site to gamble on winning skins, loot boxes and other items.
