What is the Future of Online Casinos 2022? New Trends and Forecasts

The popularity of online casinos has increased over the last few years, making land-based casinos less and less popular. This is both due to the global pandemic and a general market shift to online platforms. 

According to statistics, online casinos in Portugal experienced a vast increase in revenue from 31,3 million in the first quarter of 2017 to a staggering 125 million in the second quarter of 2021. It shows how online casinos have made their way in the last years in Portugal, considering that online gambling was legalized only recently.

But what will be next? Our online gaming expert Jeronimo Costa has gathered some thoughts on the new casino trends in Portugal for 2022. 

Mobile

Mobile casinos will continue to grow since people use their Android devices more than desktop ones. As people cannot leave the house without their mobile, it allows them to play anytime, anywhere. 

Mobile slots have become very popular in Portugal recently, and here are some reasons why:

• Convenience – it is accessible anywhere if you are standing in a queue for an appointment or traveling home from work. 
• Mobile bonuses – if you want to play your favorite slots online, you might get a better bonus or promotion if you do it on your mobile.
• Improved security – as personal data protection is key, online mobile casinos in Portugal offer more security steps for accessing the app rather than the desktop version. 

Online casinos nowadays need to guarantee the same or even better quality on mobile as on the desktop version. This trend will continue to strengthen during 2022.

Wearables 

If mobile will continue to strengthen, then wearables will be one of the casino trends 2022 will bring. More and more people use some kind of wearables, most commonly smartwatches. That being the case, there is a need and interest in having an option to place bets online vis the device. 

This is a niche market with a lot of potential, however, having gambling or betting options on mobile might come with some of the struggles. The integrability is a bit more complicated, there are many operating systems to adapt the games to as models vary a lot from each other. 

On the other hand, having your favorite game right on your hand makes gambling even more convenient.  Players can even play if they have only 5 spare minutes. If voice recognition is added, the small screen of the watch is not a problem anymore. Furthermore, there are not many buttons or visuals to distract you from the game.   

Virtual and Augmented Reality 

Virtual reality and augmented reality have been buzzwords for the past few years in every industry. Of course, online casinos are not an exception. The announcement of the company Facebook, now called Meta, to create the Metaverse also has added additional push on moving in the VR and AR market. 

With the help of virtual reality tools, players can now enjoy the real-time experience in the comfort of their own homes. Furthermore, creating your avatar and living the alternate life gives the added gamification bonus to the online casino experience. 

The only issue holding back VR and AR from becoming the ultimate casino trends in 2022 is its current availability as players need to have the headset which is quite costly to be able to enjoy the experience. 

Cryptocurrencies 

Another one of the new casino trends is playing in online casinos using cryptocurrencies. It can be safely said that this trend is taking over Portugal. It has been named the most crypto-friendly country in Europe. 

A few of the key advantages for using crypto as the main currency is the intractability as the transactions are anonymous and it is difficult to track them. Usually, there are small transaction fees when betting with crypto. The taxability is a gray area. As cryptocurrencies are not controlled by one particular institution the taxation is not yet controlled. 

That being said, crypto is very attractive all over the world, and its popularity in the gaming industry is forecasted only to increase. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can all agree that the trends in online casinos are shifting towards the technological advancements that have emerged in recent years. To be up to date online casinos have to be even more flexible than ever allowing players to play on their mobile, wearable, or event VR device. as well as casinos have to offer a variety of payment methods not to lose possible costumes.