Online gambling is nothing new at this point, but the way in which it is made accessible and available to prospective players raises an interesting question. To what extent are online casinos their own classification of gaming? Removed from physical gambling as they are, the way that most people interact with these platforms is often through smartphones, making online casinos much more akin to mobile gaming.
Does this distinction even matter? The ways in which it does might mostly pertain to audience interest and how likely a given player is to try an online casino if they’ve only previously been a fan of other mobile games.
The Shared Purpose
As far as the player is concerned, it might not often even matter. Whatever helps them to best pass the time that they have in front of them is going to effectively function as a mobile game. It all comes down to personal interest – whether that player would rather spend this time with a ported role-playing game or whether they want to just play a few rounds of online slots with real money. Functionally, they are the same and they are accessed the same way, which makes any distinction between them harder to distinguish.
Financial Involvement
For many people, the dividing line might once have been that since casino games operate with the use of real money, that separates them from other games. However, all manner of games (beyond simply mobile games) often incorporate regular payments into the playing of them. Many times, this is simply in the form of payments players can make for cosmetics, but other times, the payments can have more profound impacts on the game itself – leading to a label of ‘pay to win’.
Elsewhere in the world of mobile gaming (though not exclusively), you have freemium games, whereby the download of the game is free but the developers make money from payments that are made over the course of the gameplay experience. Sometimes these payments are presented as optional, but since the payment can skip long waits or arduous hurdles, playing without paying could be clearly unintended.
Aesthetic Differences
It might be that the games presented through online casinos aren’t all that different from the types of games that would usually be presented under the general umbrella of other mobile games.
You might feel as though casino games are easily distinguishable because of gambling hallmarks – the roulette table, the slot wheel, etc. However, looking at some mobile games might make you realise that while the aesthetics might vary, the practices remain the same, especially if those previously mentioned financial elements are present. In that way, casino games can be seen as fitting neatly alongside the catalogue of mobile games. Even when it comes to games like Diablo Immortal, which might be seen as entries in a long-running and established gaming franchise, the whole gaming experience is one that hinges on monetisation. Being surrounded by similar games could even be one reason why online casinos have managed to find such audiences so successfully.