Virtual Casinos: What NFT Gambling Looks Like in the Metaverse

It's hard to think of a time when the internet wasn't around. Some may remember a time when gambling could only be done in legitimate bricks and mortar casinos and sports grounds. Now, though, visiting an online gambling venue can be done from almost anywhere in the world. Sure, there are laws and rules to think about, but there's no doubt that the billion-dollar online gambling industry has been a huge success.

Metaverse gambling: Is this the next step?

You've probably heard of the metaverse, and perhaps even stepped virtually inside one. If you've ever bought a game you can play with a VR (virtual reality) headset, you can guess where metaverse gambling might come in. So far, we know VR gaming as a virtual world we can step into and experience in a more immediate way than any other game.

How can online gambling take advantage of the metaverse?

Imagine for a moment you have a few favorite slot games you'd like to play. Imagine further that you have a VR headset, and you could load a slot game and step inside it. A good example would be playing a 3D slot, something adventurous that you could experience on a new level, thanks to the immersive nature of the metaverse.

Would you want to check that out? We know we would, and while it may not fully replace the online casino world we know now, the thought of visiting a metaverse casino and experiencing it in a way that was previously impossible is so cool.

You might even be able to choose a casino, grab your VR headset, and step inside it in the metaverse. You could 'meet' fellow players on the casino floor, while wandering round looking for a slot machine to play. It certainly offers another social aspect.

Welcome to Decentraland

If you're wondering what this might look like, you've got Decentraland to provide some details for you. This is a decentralized world, where you can enter as an avatar and visit all kinds of different places. Most famously for our purposes is ICE Poker, a Decentral Games effort available inside Decentraland. This gets thousands of visits, and you'll need a wearable NFT to be able to participate. There is also a full casino in Decentraland that does include slots and other traditional casino games.

That's where the NFTs come in - non-fungible tokens. This is a digital cryptographic token. It cannot be copied in any way, with all NFTs recorded in a blockchain. This means that every NFT is unique. If this makes you think of cryptocurrencies, the two are not the same. These are fungible because they can be traded for each other. One Bitcoin is the same as another, for instance.

One example of an NFT is seen in the game CryptoKitties. Yes, it involves cats, and the idea is that each cat is an NFT. No two cats are the same, so if you possess a digital CryptoKitty, you've got something that is unique, hence an NFT.

Should we expect NFT metaverse casinos to launch soon?

There are a few areas that may halt the potential in this area. Firstly, at the time of writing, no one has introduced any regulations against these casinos. While some online casinos can add a range of cryptocurrencies to their sites, some countries have not yet allowed this. It would be quite a jump to go from cryptocurrencies to NFTs.

Secondly, if you're going to introduce a proper metaverse casino, you're going to need all your visitors to buy VR headsets or AR (augmented reality) headsets. That seems some way off just now. One would assume there is little overlap between those who already have the equipment and those who would like to see and visit metaverse casinos.

There could be some headway in this area in the future, but we'd bet on it being some time before NFTs in a metaverse casino become the norm.