Industry news
Virtual Reality Gambling Revenues Expected to Rise by 800% in Next 5 Years
CNBC reported this week that reveneues from Virtual Reality gambling are set to rise by 800% in the next five years, due to “high rollers”. Virtual reality (VR) technology companies like Oculis Rift continue to improve their devices, so a time will come when VR gambling goes from being a bit of a novelty to becoming the game gear of choice for high stakes gamblers.
Virtual reality technology is designed to put a player in an immersive casino experience. One of the current trends in the online casino market is “live dealer casinos”, which offers a gambler the chance to play table games with real dealers using brick-and-mortar cards, dice, or spinning wheels. The action is streamed to a player’s computer screen in real time, providing a gaming experience much different than the video simulations and random number generators which power most Internet gambling.
The Wider VR Technology Market
ven the 800% prediction suggests that the gambling industry is going to lag behind the wider VR technology market in sales. The report suggests a 1000% increase in the sales of virtual reality technology for other forms of gaming, or more general use.
The CNBC reports said that sales from hardware revenues from 360 degree cameras, headsets, and accessories were $5 billion this year, but are expected to be over $50 billion by 2021. The report suggested the gaming and non-gaming market is going to be restricted to high rollers and early adopters in the short-to-midterm range, due to the costs of buying the apparatus.
Low-end users currently buy VR tech which plugs into their smartphones, like Samsung’s Gear VR. High-end users buy the Oculus Rift VR tech, which interfaces with an advanced and expensive computer.
Lauren Foye’s Prediction
Author and technologist Lauren Foye said of the VR market, “These will be coupled with a niche clientele, often high-rollers, thereby resulting in comparatively large average wager amongst these early adopters.”
In time, though, a wave of companies can be expected to offer their versions of virtual reality technology. This is going to fill-in the entire spectrum of costs, so consumers are going to have many price options.
How Land-Based VR Tech Works
Live virtual reality casinos would provide an extra level of immersion. With a VR headset, the player would find themselves “inside” the live dealer studio. The gaming experience would allow the live gambler to feel like they are inside a brick-and-mortar casino, with a 360-degree panorama.
Land-based casino are prepared to offer a whole other level of immersion, though. If the revolution comes, the first stages of it are going to play out on the brick-and-mortar casino floors. Virtual reality headsets can be combined with VR machinery to provide a fully-immersive gaming environment, where the ground shakes as the gaming happens. It is hard to say exactly how game designers will employ the technology, but VR tech combined with skill-based slots would allow the kind of next-generation bonus games which combine dynamic special effects, cinematic HD graphics, and surround-sound video/audio uplinks.
Facebook and Samsung Tech Products
One reason the VR revolution is coming is the investment from technology giants like Facebook and Samsung. While the current VR tech is considered bleeding edge technology for the gambling industry, that will not always be the case, when the mass market companies begin to develop their own VR systems.
Gamblers over the past 15 years have grown used to seeing the same forms of gambling online. Even when mobile casinos began to change how the online business ran, the games themselves were essential graphic simulations of a casino much like online casinos offered. Online gambling in the year 2025 is likely to look much different than what the 1st and 2nd generations of online gamblers have known.
Re-posted from: http://www.bestonlinecasinos.com/
