A lot of people today make use of online casinos for good reasons. One, you don’t really have to go to an actual casino which means saving time and money – both of which would be better spent on actually playing your favorite games. Two, there are way more choices when it comes to both online casinos and games than their land counterparts.
Another major advantage of online casinos is that they are constantly adopting the newest technologies to make games exciting and to make it easier for customers to transact on their systems. There are two prevailing technologies today that are becoming popular among online casinos.
The first one is blockchain technology. Though the current crypto market is bearish, the underlying technology has a number of practical applications in different industries including the gambling industry. Second is Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI technology has been a long time coming. But considering the developments in the niche, it has become a staple in many online casinos today.
The Benefits of Blockchain Technology for Poker
Why blockchain technology? What exactly does it bring to the “poker” table? Before anything else, it’s a good idea to know exactly what blockchain is. Blockchain is an invention by Satoshi Nakamoto, the person/group behind Bitcoin. Blockchain is a collection of records called “blocks”. It is basically a public ledger that is available to the public. The block will only be added if it has been confirmed valid. In the case of Bitcoin, you have miners for that.
Now, what makes blockchain technology such a good thing for the online casino industry? The first thing that blockchain offers to the online gambling industry is that it can increase trust and transparency within the company. Things such as the amount of money given as prize and the amount of money going into the casino will be recorded in the public ledger. Normally, in a centralized system, these are things that you can’t see, or at least very easily. The good thing about blockchain is that you can now gain access to such information. Here, players will know for sure whether what the casino has claimed to have paid out is true or not, thereby helping the player decide whether or not the casino is trustworthy.
Aside from increasing trust and transparency, blockchain could potentially allow users to have a venue where they can use their cryptocurrencies. There are online casinos that are now starting to work as exchanges as well. Here, you can exchange your cryptocurrency into cash where it can then be used within the system.
Or better yet, there are those online casinos that even make their own token. With their own token, you can use it or even have it exchanged in case you plan on waiting for the token to increase in value depending on the market cap that it gets over the next years or so.
What makes this different from cash is that there is no third party being involved. Basically, what it does is make transactions faster. Though we are still in the early stages of adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, there are already countless benefits that we can gain from this. And possibly, we can see a future where online casinos are going to be accepting cryptos as payments in the near future.
The Potential of AI Technology in Today’s Poker?
It is no longer news that we are at a point where computers can mimic the way people think. In fact, this is the reason why chess grandmasters are even having a hard time against AI tech. AI in today’s time has many benefits from providing us the answers to mimicking the usual interaction that people have with each other.
But when it comes to online casinos, AI tech is becoming quite popular, especially in poker. If you look at this infographic from OnlinePokerAmerica.com, you’ll realize that there’s a growing number of online poker sites in the US that are now introducing this kind of tech to their clients.
Is this a good or bad thing? In a casino in Pittsburgh last year, it has been reported that an AI program is beating professional poker players. And not just any pro poker player, champions are having a difficult time dealing with the AI. The AI is called Libratus. And during the time that it was being tested, Libratus has won $701K worth of chips after 67,000 hands. This means that opponents have lost the same amount of money playing against the AI.
Poker is much more difficult compared to chess. Chess AI mainly analyzes every square. As for poker, it requires a more advanced algorithm. According to an MIT Technology review, “Poker requires reasoning and intelligence that has proven difficult for machines to imitate”. In addition to this, MIT Technology Review further explained that “In games of ‘imperfect information’, it is enormously complicated to figure out the ideal strategy given every possible approach your opponent may be taking”.
Can this change the way we play poker? In reality, it can help provide aspiring poker players a strategy that they can use against other players. Now, it can also become tricky for the online casino because no one wants an AI that simply beats everyone else. This also means that it is important for the online casino to know when to dial down the ability of the AI to beat players.
But for casinos that are still not comfortable to have an AI that is known to beat poker champions, it is still possible to make use of AI tech in other areas of the online casino industry. It is now possible to make use of AI tech to answer inquiries and to make sure that the people aren’t just opting out of the online casino.
Technology can go a long way and can help online casinos build better gameplay and even better overall experience for their clients. Not only that, you can also expect more people to trust casinos that make use of these technologies. And lastly, technology can also help in maximizing the profits that online casinos make.
