Online casinos are in the midst of a grand new era. Ten years ago, who among them could have dreamed that there would be IPOs on the London Stock Exchange, mergers and lawsuits between online casino companies as if they were corporations, casino games software for mobile phones that at the time were still themselves a new - and less technologically advanced compared to now - addition to people's lives. Who knew that online poker would be as popular as it is, or that an online version of a game like bingo could have so many devotees around the world by this time?
Amazingly, online casinos are still being launched even as the market widens to a point that there are so many online casino sites and companies out there only a few strong ones have managed to gain much prominence. Even land-based casino companies wish to launch online casinos for their brand name, and sports clubs in the UK have launched online casinos theme-linked to their team. With the addition of new software that helps people gamble online whenever they want via their cell phones, it wouldn't be out of line to simply say that online casinos are here - in whatever form they exist - and that they are here to stay.
Even so, when online casino companies start suing each other, as Empire Online has threatened to do to Party Gaming after Empire Online - not Party Gaming - left negotiations for a buyout deal between the two (the deal would have resulted in Party Gaming getting Empire Online, which isn't so independent as the company would like consumers to believe as it - Empire - uses Party Gaming software to operate its online poker rooms) you have to wonder if online casinos will manage to avoid the trap of forgetting their customer base from which the money comes by focusing only on the business deals, mergers and heck, the money itself. |
