If we look back just a decade, entertainment – and maybe gambling, in particular – has changed so much and so quickly. And it’s showing no signs of slowing down. We’re likely to see online poker and other casino games keep developing at an unbelievable pace, and for those who enjoy a game every once in a while, this could be an exciting thing. Today, we’ll be diving into what we might have to look forward to.
New Methods to Verify Security and Legitimacy
One of the most important things that needs solving in the world of online casinos today is easier ways of verifying the legitimacy of any digital casino.
Finding an online casino to play at is easy, but feeling confident that it’s really secure to play at is another story. One of the best ways is to check one of the trusted UK poker sites for an alternative, but without such sites, it can be quite difficult to tell the difference between a casino you should trust and one you really shouldn’t.
This is likely to be a lot easier in the future. How exactly isn’t certain yet, but for instance, there could be something similar to the SSL certificate. So, instead of having to look up if a casino licence number in some footer is real, there would be a seal of approval on the website or next to the address bar that would be impossible to fake.
Biometrics for Identity Verification and Payment
While we already see it to some extent today, identity verification and online payments are likely to be confirmed more and more through biological measurements – biometrics.
Using your fingerprint or face to log in means faking being you is harder, while also being very easy and doesn’t require that someone memorises obscure passwords.
VR, Virtual Casinos, and Personalisation
Now we’re getting into the really exciting stuff. Today, players are forced to compromise – they have to choose between an online casino that doesn’t quite offer the same atmosphere as the traditional tables, or a traditional table without the convenience and anonymity of online gaming.
VR could change that. People have already started experimenting with virtual casinos – casinos that exist in the virtual world, with rooms players can enter and other avatars to chat to. These virtual casinos would be life-like, and in many ways let users experience the same thing as they would if they were to visit a land-based casino, but without the trip there and back.
But VR could do much more than just provide users with the standard poker experience from home. VR would also allow users to customise their experiences. They could customise everything from the volume of individual elements to the colours of the casino floor to the personality of the dealer. It could allow users to create their own perfect casinos, while still enjoying socialising with others, or remaining invisible, if and when they’d prefer that.
While VR has been at a standstill for a while, that could change. One of the reasons that VR isn’t really taking off is that people want comfort and convenience. That’s something the technology is currently struggling with.
But the rise of 6G – planned to be commercially available starting in the early 2030s – could be the future we’ve been looking forward to. Thanks to the network’s ability to sense, we might no longer need the clunky devices we’re now forced to use. Instead, players could simply move, and the network would sense these movements and handle the rest.
New Variants and Poker Experiences
Besides what we’ve mentioned, poker is likely to undergo many other natural changes due to the different forms it’s starting to take. After all, mobile poker is quite different from traditional poker, and that’s likely to also change our behaviour and the way we think about the game.
There could be new variants with new rules that either don’t exist yet or just aren’t popular right now. Perhaps poker becomes associated with something else – wine nights, poker booths at airports, picnics, you name it. Poker is as much about culture as the game itself, and if time has shown us anything, it’s that how culture is going to change is impossible to predict.
The Future of Poker Looks Bright
For classic poker fans, the thought of a future where physical poker isn’t the most common way to play might feel a bit uncomfortable.
Worry not – even with all the new methods being introduced, people are going to continue playing together in the old-fashioned way as well. There will just be more options for those who’d rather do it in a different way.
