The gambling industry in Canada continues to produce significant revenue. In 2025, income from the sector is expected to exceed the $15 billion mark, and that’s a sizeable increase from 2022’s recorded figure of $12.6 billion. Part of the reason for the increase is due to Ontario legalizing the practice in 2022. Now, every online casino Canada has to offer players can be accessed through this province and beyond. It’s a thriving landscape, but the industry works hard to keep up with changing times.
New Challenges
The online casino sector is especially competitive, and every operator aims to stay ahead. Embracing new trends is one way in which one platform can stand out, and being the first to develop exciting innovations can significantly boost a customer base.
Some trends are driven by players while others are promoted heavily by the online casinos themselves. Not all are successful, but some will attract enough interest to drive the industry forward.
Keeping it Live
Players like to enhance their gaming experience wherever possible, and it helps to have an element of realism. While some prefer playing in the traditional way, using automated casino software, there is a growing audience over at the live casino rooms.
Live casino games are broadcast 24/7, in real time, from gaming halls across the world. They employ human dealers and croupiers to operate a choice of titles, including blackjack, roulette and wheel of fortune games.
Players can interact with the dealers via a chat window, and this can help to boost interest. Up until now, live casinos have offered the closest possible experience to gaming in the physical world, and it’s a trend that will continue.
Wheels in Motion
Those Wheel of Fortune games are also known as ‘Gameshows’ and they are among the newest trends in the online casino sector. They are primarily found in the live section of the platform, and each features a wheel as its centrepiece.
The wheel is split into different segments. The host spins the wheel and players stake on which segment they think the pointer will land in. While the concept is simple, there are bonus features on each game, and they can be complex. Wheel of Fortune games cover a host of categories, with many featuring the rules of the popular Monopoly franchise.
Gaming Hybrids
Casino games tend to fall into specific categories. Slots, roulette, blackjack and bingo are among the most popular. Some recent releases offer a twist on classic rules, but one of the more interesting casino trends has formed a crossover.
Slingo is a hybrid between slots and bingo, and while we can trace its history back to the 1990s, it only began to appear at online casinos when it was purchased from its inventor by a gaming company in 2013.
To play Slingo, players spin the reels of a slot machine with the aim of crossing numbers from their bingo card. It’s the most obvious example of a hybrid game, but we may well see more of these in the future. Certain slots can now be found in the live casino rooms, where they have an element of gameshow titles attached.
The Future of Online Casino Play
Online casino brands are always quick to employ the newest forms of technology. At present, three of the most progressive factors in many industries are artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality. Casinos intend to embrace all three, and there have already been some advances with each.
Artificial intelligence has played a role in digital casinos for many years. The software recommends games based on a player’s previous choices, but the selections will be more accurate moving forward.
Virtual reality and augmented reality, meanwhile, promise to take online casino play to new levels. Once again, both pieces of technology are already being used, but this is on a relatively small scale. Moving forward, both of these trends will gain significant momentum.
VR has the capability to take players into the heart of the action, grabbing a virtual seat at the roulette or card tables. AR works in a similar way, but this enhances a player’s screen by augmenting certain equipment, such as a roulette wheel and a live dealer.
For now, regular live casino rooms offer the closest experience to the real thing, but virtual reality and augmented reality promise to deliver whole new levels of realism to the gaming landscape.
It’s interesting to follow trends and to see whether they change over time. In the case of online casinos, many have remained popular for many years. Live casino rooms have been in place since 1998, and they continue to attract a loyal following.
Other developments, such as hybrid games, are relatively new, while augmented reality and virtual reality promise a fascinating future. In each case, these trends are having a significant effect on the casino industry.
