Technology Evolution in Ancient vs Modern Betting Games
Games have been around for thousands of years. When you think of betting you think of modern games like roulette and poker but people have been investing their money for a long time. This was popular in ancient Greece where people have been rolling the dice in hopes of big money for thousands of years.
Betting games were popular in ancient Greece and historians found many manuscripts of daily life in ancient Greece consisting of people betting big money in the hopes of great returns and overnight wealth. Dice games and card games have always been popular pastimes and people have bet on their luck since ancient times. Apparently, we haven’t learned yet as that continues to be the case and the motives behind it remain the same.
People came to play games in playgrounds in ancient Greece, Rome, and China. The first betting hall was opened in the Venetian church of Saint Moses! This place was chosen because ministers could control players in the church during the carnival. They spread across Europe through the 18th century and became widespread. At that time there was a shift in the attitude towards betting from seeing it as sin to a vice and eventually an entertaining and harmless side activity.
People began playing betting games on a large scale in America in 19th century and betting houses became commonplace across America. They adopted similar styles to attract large customers. Paradise City near Las Vegas was the first city in America to legalize betting and the city quickly became a hub for all betting sports in the world. Poker, spin the wheel and a lot of other games became popular and the city municipality gained lots of revenue from this. Macau in China later legalized and benefitted hugely from the decision to legalize playing games for money. All these methods required the physical presence of the player which involved traveling to these places. That and government regulations all over the world made betting a big investment in itself. To make sufficient returns players would often bet big, which still happens in modern betting houses despite the risk. This also made betting inaccessible for people who only wanted to play as a fun hobby.
Evolution in technology has played a major role in making betting games like poker and roulette accessible games to these people and made them popular in areas where there are no betting houses and hence they have a large demographic playing them. Poker and roulette can now be played on the internet. There are dedicated sites for these games where players can bet real world money for the chance to win big and play against the AI or other players from across the world. This has made playing with friends in distant locations more accessible and requires no effort from players to physically move. You can now play poker sitting on your couch through these sites.
There is another software tool that allows you to play games like poker from your couch. Games like GTA San Andreas and Red Dead Redemption have poker and roulette as minigames and you can play these against the AI in the single player and against other players for in-game currency online. There are lots of apps on Google Play and App Store that are focused on betting games as well ranging from a roll the dice to roulette and these games are free to play. They require no upfront investment and offer the convenience of playing from your bed with little to no monetary risks involved, which for some is the best way to play.
