The History of Gambling Online and Popular Online Gambling Websites

Updated: 2025

There are plenty of reasons why you might be curious about where online gambling got its start and how it’s grown since its inception in the mid-1990s. Maybe you’re writing a report, just curious, or you’re trying to use the past to predict where things are headed in the future. Maybe you want to play at a particular online casino website or betting site, and you want to learn more about their past to make sure that you can fully trust them.

Regardless of the reason, we’ve got all of the information for you here. We’ll take a look at the history of some of the most popular online gambling sites, the early and formative years of online gambling, and the growth and development years of online gambling. Finally, we’ll discuss what the future looks like for the industry as a whole. If you’re ready to take a trip back in time and into the future, buckle up, and let’s get started.

History of the Most Popular Online Gambling Sites

Looking for the backstory of some of the most popular and famous online casinos and betting sites? Well, you’re in luck, because that is exactly what we have for you in the links below. We look at the who, what, when, where, and why of each of the biggest names in the online gambling industry. Some of these sites have some really interesting and colored pasts, while many are “boring” in comparison to some of the others. But boring is good if you’re looking for a trusted gambling site to take your action. For even more details about the performance and quality of these sites in today’s world you can visit our reviews page for additional information.

The Early History of Online Gambling

While many of you may not be old enough to remember the early days of online gambling, it was certainly not what it has grown into today. Online gambling had humble beginnings in the mid-1990s with several sites popping up to lead the way into how things are today. Due to technological restrictions, the quality of the games and overall experience would seem comical compared to today’s standards. But, at least in that time frame, it was considered cutting-edge.

If you’d like to learn about the early days of online gambling and the players that helped to get the industry off the ground, check out the full write up we have below on the early history of online gambling and online gambling sites.

The Growth Years of Online Gambling

As we’ve already stated, online poker is lightyears different from the product that was put out in its early years. Thanks to changes in technology, processes, and some new players entering the market, the online gambling industry has changed drastically for the better. There were hiccups along the way, but as you can tell from what is available today, the end result was wildly positive.

In the article linked below, we take a ride through the events, following the early days of online gambling all the way up until the modern-day landscape. If you’re looking for an exciting read, this is what you’re searching for. Thanks to technology, legislative changes, and a whole lot more, these years were the most exciting in the online gambling world’s history at least up until now.

So, grab some popcorn, and click the link below to find out more.

The Future of Online Gambling

We’ve now covered exactly how online gambling started and where it’s been up until now, but what’s next? Where does online gambling go from here? Well, it’s hard to say for sure as we can’t read into the future, but we think we have a pretty good idea based on the history and the current predicted market landscape.

In a nutshell, we see a lot of great things happening for online gambling. We see it becoming more widely accepted and much more mainstream. We see it heavily competing with the brick and mortar casino industry as people start to gain trust in the process and realize all the conveniences that come with it. We see legislation moving in the right direction for growth and technology, doing its part to help spur along the growth.

What’s the time frame for all of this? It’s hard to say for sure, but we anticipate things gradually moving faster and faster. Technology is exponential in growth, and as one of the driving catalysts of the online gambling industry, you can expect to see technological advancements push industry growth. Regarding legislation, we all know the pace at which the government works. But as governments across the globe start to get a taste of the tax benefits of allowing legalized online gambling, we expect to see things move a whole heck of a lot quicker.

To give you a well-rounded picture of the future of online gambling in the world, we want to draw your attention to a few of the hurdles that might slow down the growth of the industry and a few of the factors that will help things grow much faster.

The Hurdles to the Growth of Online Gambling

Legislation and Laws

The biggest hurdle to online gambling all along has been laws and regulations. Guess what? This will continue to be the biggest hurdle until governments start to get a bit more progressive (or at least start looking into those sweet, sweet tax benefits). Here’s the good news: The overwhelming trend right now is for both state and country governments to be moving towards full acceptance and legality in the regions where they are not fully accepted. We completely expect this trend to continue, even if it’s not overnight like we would hope that it would be.

An Understanding of Its Purpose

Until people fully understand that online gambling (or gambling in general) is just another form of entertainment, like going to the movies or playing mini-golf, things will be slow. For some reason, stubborn people like to think that there is no way that gambling can just be a form of entertainment. They get tunnel vision, and all they think about are the few cases of those with gambling problems out there.

Paying $30 to get some popcorn and go to the movies for an hour and a half is no different than gambling for an hour and a half with $30 for fun, except in the latter equation you actually have a chance to get your money back! We’ll stay off our soapbox for now, but you get the idea. Until the rest of the mainstream world wises up to this (which they slowly are), things will be slower.

The Factors That Will Help Online Gambling Grow

Technology

We’ve mentioned several times already, technology is going to be the biggest catalyst for the growth of online gambling sites. With every new advancement, online gambling games either get closer to being just like playing in real life or, already in some instances, are BETTER than what you’ll get in person. As this trend continues, we’ll start to see a shift of more and more people moving from the brick and mortar casinos to the online realm. As this happens, acceptance will snowball, and the growth in all other areas will continue as well.

Online gambling sites are already pretty dang incredible with what they offer. It’s beyond exciting to even try and guess what they will be in a few weeks, months, or years as the technology continues to grow.

People are getting educated. People are becoming more knowledgeable on the subject of online gambling. Instead of blindly sticking to the negative stigmas that they have heard in the past, they are doing their own homework to see what it is really about.

The process is slow, but people are becoming more accepting. As people in power start to jump on this train, you can start to see a domino effect coming in regards to legalization and complete adoption by governments, states, and countries.