Will Online Gambling Really Land Permanently In The Metaverse?

Experts are talking about an imminent wedding between the gambling industry and the new virtual universe created by Zuckerberg. But will it really be so? If we were to respond to the title question, the answer would certainly be yes. Yes, the gambling will land in the Metaverse. In fact, it has already landed there.

The first casino that has opened in this new space of the net is Ice Poker, is hosted by Decentraland and boasts the beauty of more than 6,000 players a day, for a turnover that last year surpassed the record amount of $7 billion in just three days.

Ice Poker offers a new opportunity for players to earn real money in the metaverse by completing daily objectives and competing against other players in a play-to-earn poker game. While other play-to-earn games reward players with a game token and then allow them to ‘breed’ more Nft with the same token, ICE Poker players upgrade their Nft with $ICE.

In addition, Decentralised Games is self-sufficient because it pays commissions through the Polygon validation system that manages the more than 1,000 Decentraland Land packs on which it sits and provides liquidity for its tokens. Community members vote on the allocation of these funds and make changes to the token economy of the ICE Poker ecosystem.

Gambling and Metaverse, a binomial that has become real and operative

Gambling and metaverse, by now, seem to be a real binomial, already operative with some incredible opportunities from business, employment and more general technological point of view. 

“The Metaverse incorporates several new technologies including blockchain, IoT, gaming VPNs and 3D visualization that create a fully immersive visual experience. The metaverse represents a shared online community that brings people together globally to interact, engage and participate. Today’s companies are developing their projects to utilize cutting-edge technologies such as 3D reconstruction, artificial intelligence, blockchain and more to make the metaverse more powerful”, explains Silvia Urso of the Giochidislots.com editorial team.

“Persistence (or permanence) is what convinces gamers most about the metaverse. This means that it remains available even after a player has finished using the gaming platform for one session. Moreover, it impresses gamers by offering a virtual environment for digital imitation of our real world. When playing on a platform in the metaverse, gamers can encounter things that are quite similar to reality. They can communicate with other players, exchange virtual assets, and touch virtual objects using gloves and tactile jackets. Game objects in the metaverse have a monetary value. This means that players can make money by reselling their digital goods using NFTs in the metaverse”.

That this is one of the trends of the immediate future is also confirmed by the words of Natalia Chiaravalloti, a gambling expert on the editorial staff of Giochidislots.com: “In the next five years, two main trends will predominate in the industry. We are mainly referring to casinos in the metaverse. There are many companies that are moving in this direction by renting space to offer this service.  This is a step that aims to intercept a new audience and a new target audience for gambling by expanding its range of services and gaming experiences. The digitalisation of the gambling industry always opens new opportunities and brings about great improvements in the sector. The dynamic way in which things are developing shows that the future of the gambling industry will be high-tech and impressive”.

The unresolved issue of the metaverse: the regulation

But before speaking of wedlock, we must also speak of rules and laws. In short of regulation. All international entities involved in the regulation of online gaming have emphasized the urgency of defining a digital ecosystem through an integrated approach. Of course, the regulation of new gaming applications, which also provide for winnings in non-cash form, i.e. electronic money, such as casinos in the metaverse, cannot be separated from a regulatory framework’. 

If the Metaverse will indeed be the fifth dimension of the universe, gambling is ready to leverage it. But it will still take time to reach it.