Online gaming’s impact on the digital economy

It could be a quick game of bingo while waiting for the next bus. Or it could be settling down on the sofa for a major session with a major online role-playing game.

Whatever type of digital game has attracted you – you are being part of the great revolution in online experiences. Thanks to top operators like 888 ladies bingo and many others there is now a whole world of games available to us at anytime, at any place.

Literally millions of games are available, from ludo to poker or from Temple Run to Minecraft. Players can range from children to pensioners because any gender, any age and any background is welcome to play in this new online world.

The unprecedented boom in online gaming is having profound social consequences too. Many players are now socialising online, belonging to internet communities and mixing with other players in a remote world.

The digital revolution is also creating a major source of employment and investment. It has created a major multinational industry – adding a major element to the new fast-growing global digital economy.

That’s why future generations will look back on this period with amazement. Still don’t get it?

Well think how fast the changes in our gaming life have been. Over the last generation the changes have gone something like this:

• In the fifties and sixties families played games together in front of the fire in the parlour.

• Then in the seventies rebelling teens started finding their own board games to play in darkened bedrooms, like Dungeons and Dragons or Risk.

• The first electronic devices introduced games we’d never seen before. They included pub and arcade classics like Pacman or space invaders.

• Even a very basic electronic game like table tennis with moving bats and a bleeping bouncing ‘ball’ seemed impossibly exciting and sophisticated. So when a more complex shuffling digital game like space invaders arrived it was simply mind-blowing to that generation.

• It wasn’t long however before games like that were available on handheld devices like Nintendos. People were now able to play amazing digital games while on the move – and these games were available anytime, anyplace.

• The technology was speeding up by now. Next came the era of consoles, with ever evolving platforms of digital gaming offered to home-based players.

• The digital revolution was now well underway. Families played the Wii together, others found ways to get basic games on their basic mobile phones.

• The next leap was to get the most advanced game tech onto the screens of our portable devices like phones, pads and laptops. When huge sections of the population started looking for Pokemon characters with their phones or creating fantasy worlds on their pads with Minecraft it seemed the golden age of mobile gaming had arrived.

• But wait a moment… next up were the online casinos. With great designs, brilliant games and slick operations it was perhaps no surprise that internet gaming was destined to take over the planet.

This amazing digital revolution has had an enormous economic effect. The online casinos and gaming operators are now at the heart of a huge multi-billion dollar worldwide industry.

And this of course has had many unexpected spin-offs. For example, in America many casinos are owned by native Americans.

The huge profits that are now being generated are making some tribes very wealthy. These previously marginalised and poverty-hit groups are benefiting enormously from the latest digital economy.

Some tribes have been transformed by the digital windfall. It is likely to continue.

Meanwhile in Europe many governments have begun to realise the huge benefits that can come from the large sums generated by online gaming. The tax payments from the digital economy are now a significant part of many vast public-spending programmes.

From being rather unsure about the digital economy initially, the European financial establishment is quickly realising there are major benefits to be discovered. The gaming industry is expected to continue to grow at a rapid rate – and the taxes generated are similarly expected to grow.

Think too of the side effects of the success of these successful online business ventures. Huge sums are being spent by them on areas like software development, online security and game design.

Universities have even started offering courses geared to training game developers. Meanwhile across the world, financial investors are always looking for the next exciting new gaming idea to pour money into.

Every online casino is paying for domains that host their enormous traffic and licensing fees to all the various regulatory bodies required. More and more gaming operators are opening up, each providing new financial, IT and administrative jobs behind the scenes.

And perhaps the most exciting factor is that this digital revolution in gaming has only just started. Economic experts are predicting that the boom is all set to continue.

And how will exciting developments in AI and virtual reality impact on digital gaming? How will portable gaming be boosted by driverless transport in the future?

The new technology will surely fuel the new digital boom. So the future is looking extremely promising for all forms of digital gaming.

Look at where gaming was just 50 years ago. There has certainly been a revolution in those last 50 years – but don’t bet against the revolution continuing for the next 50 years too.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes.