The Technology Behind Online Casinos
While online casinos may appear to be extremely simple and easy-to-use, there’s actually a lot of technology that powers them. In fact, you’ll be surprised to find out just how much work is involved in running them. Thankfully, our pals over at Smartphonecasinos.co.uk, who review the casino sites for the UK market, know exactly how they work.
Games Developers
The first thing you should know is that online casinos, meaning the websites, don’t actually develop the games available on their site. Instead, they buy the games off developers and place them on their site. Some of the most popular developers right now include NetEnt (Who created Starburst, Guns N’ Roses and more), Microgaming (Who created Immortal Romance, Mega Moolah and more), Evolution Gaming (Who is responsible for providing live casino games) and much more.
Most of the work is done using Turbo C++ and Windows SDK while the graphics are done through programmes such as Photoshop and Maya. However, a simple slot game can take up to a year of development time. Around a dozen people are involved in the project including a game designer, a mathematician, a server developer, between one to three front-end developers, a game tester, a project manager and a small creative team.
Meanwhile, live casino games work differently. Casinos offering these games will need cameras to film their real-life dealers at certain studios, a game control unit which is used to broadcast the video as well as a monitor so the dealer can watch the game and interact with the players.
Security
Online casinos also need to put your security and safety first. After all, you don’t want anyone to get hold of your personal details. To keep you safe, casino uses the latest security measures such as SSL (Secure Socket Layer) which protects personal information and is often used with online banking sites. In addition, some casinos offer two-factor authentication, sometimes referred to as 2FA, which is an added security layer used when logging in to websites.
With 2FA, you’ll be asked for your password and username and then be prompted to enter a special code that is sometimes sent to a secondary device (Such as laptop or smartphone) that only you have access to.
Data
While the casino itself doesn’t need to develop the casino games, it does need to keep and process such as who is playing what game, what they’ve won and what bonuses they have. You’ll also have to remember that busy online casinos will have hundreds to thousands of visitors every minute.
Casinos also have to make sure that their servers, what runs the site, doesn’t crash or glitch or bug out. Users want to play their favourite games at any time they want, and online casinos have to provide that service.
Smartphones, Desktops and more
Lastly, online casinos wouldn’t exist without something to play them on. Online gambling first became popular in the 90s when people began playing on their desktop computers. However, technology has since become more and more portable, meaning that most people now play on their laptops, smartphones and tablet devices.
Most software developers optimise their games for mobile devices as more people are choosing to play that way. The last several years has seen developers move from creating games with Adobe Flash to using HTML5, a move that was done because Apple smartphones didn’t support Flash.
Online casino technology is constantly growing. It’s changed so much over the last few years and it’s expected to continue. The only question is, can developers and players keep up with it?