The rise of the metaverse: How will it impact the online casino industry?

The most recent news swirling about the metaverse isn’t exactly pretty – literally. All anyone could talk about in the last week was the metaverse selfie Mark Zuckerberg posted and just how terrible it looked. He finally responded with an improved avatar but it still left many people concerned that the development of the metaverse is moving much more slowly than hoped.

There is a lot of hope for the metaverse. It is an exciting feature of our digital lives that could change how we interact with the internet and with the outside world. The rise of the metaverse will certainly have an impact across the gaming world.

Since its earliest days, virtual reality has always been associated with video games. As the iGaming industry has grown, the question of how online casinos will function in the metaverse has arisen. Some online casinos, such as Metaspins Casino, have already begun to work on answering this question.

This article will examine what exactly the metaverse is and how it is likely to impact the online casino industry.

What exactly is the metaverse?

The term metaverse is thrown around a lot and not always fully explained. There are references to metaverses throughout science fiction, some utopian, some nightmarish. Hopes and fears abound about the potential reality of the metaverse that we will create for ourselves.

The vision of the metaverse that has been pushed by Mark Zuckerberg and Meta, Facebook’s rebrand,is essentially a virtual reality social media platform. It will allowusers’ avatars to interact with each other in a virtual setting. Aswith all virtual reality, gaming will play a part. There is also an emphasis on the creation of a marketplace.

With the push from employees to make work from home the new normal, the metaverse is also being promoted as a way to maintain an office culture from a distance. It would allow coworkers to interact with one other and have the essential community building “water cooler moments” without having to commute to the office.

The metaverse and online casinos

Here are three of the areas of the online casino industry that will be most directly impacted by the move to the metaverse:

Payments

There is a close relationship between the metaverse and cryptocurrencies. Although the cryptocurrency market is still in the process of recovering from the major crash it suffered this spring, it has rebounded from worse crashes before. Despite how skeptical some people are about cryptocurrencies;it is safe to say that they will be an important part of our financial future.

Paying with cryptocurrencies at online casinos is becoming more common already. Some online casinos have simply added it as a payment option, while others have made it a major facet of their brand identity. Crypto casinos focus on being crypto compatible and accept more than just the two big coins, Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Since the metaverse will promote the entirely digital, it is obvious that online casinos that operate in that space will need to accept cryptocurrencies.

Activity

Video and mobile gaming is generally a sedentary activity. There have been consoles such as theWii and games like the Just Dance series that have challenged the norm and encouraged movement and activity. For the most part, however, this simply isn’t the case. The same is true for playing at online casinos. You scroll through the games available and play, all without having to move around or even look up from your phone.

The metaverse will make the online casino experience even more like the land-based casino experience. You’ll be able to walk around between the tables and the slot machine games. Some table games should even encourage you to stand while you play. These changes will help make online gambling more physically active.

Reading players

Live dealer table games are currently one of the most popular ways to play table games at online casinos. This is partly because it feels more transparent and more like a land-based casino experience. While the tech isn’t currently there to be able to see the other players at the table, we’re anticipating that development to come along very soon. The appeal of this is that you’ll be able to see your opponents’ tells.

Metaverse casinos will upend this. We’re still a very long way away from having avatars that perfectly mimic our facial motions. So, unless your opponent has a vocal tell, it will be impossible to read any tells. It will be interesting to see if online casinos take any steps to make it easier to players to see one other or interact.