Chapter 2 - Golden Times

Narcis Gavrilescu
Sep 11
3 min read

Updated: Oct 14

The 90s were an absolute blast for the online casino world, and much of the activity and trends that occurred then tend to mimic modern times.

This article will be covering major events, regulatory bodies, companies and influential people of the industry between 1994 and 2000.

Who were the iGaming pioneers?

We saw last time that 1994 was the year of Microgaming and Cryptologic, both laying the foundations of the industry we see today. But they were not alone.

In Canada, Starnet Communications had ambitions of its own and Sweden's BossMedia was setting the scene for what would be an incredible expansion.

In 1995, the internet’s playground grew bigger. Interops, Sports Book, and Ladbrokes put up websites, offered toll-free numbers for phone wagers. They let gamblers check odds without ever leaving the house.

Many operations ran "fun" online games (a.k.a. bet without money). A precursor to the "free trial", if you will. But it wasn’t long before real money was in play. That same year, Liechtenstein had its first online bet.

In 1996 competition was heating up. The Gaming Club was actually a contender for the "first real online casino". But according to records, InterCasino was the first. Born in Antigua and controlled by Cryptologic, InterCasino took the first real money bet in January '96. It had 18 games and a partnership with the National Indian Lottery.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Eurobet began taking bets on UK sports and races. This one has a particularly interesting case since there seem to be no exact public records as to who created the company. Centrebet launched their own online sportsbook in Australia, and it was quickly followed by others as news spread.

Finland’s National Lottery went digital, marking one of the first government sanctioned moves into online betting.

Meanwhile, Canada was quietly earning a place as one of the world’s gambling innovators.

On June 10th 1996, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission was born.

Microgaming released Cash Splash, the world’s first progressive slot. It was way ahead of its time, offering the possibility of huge jackpots no matter how small your screen was.

The Regulatory Gold Rush

Things started to get really interesting in '96-'97, when various Caribbean islands and Central American countries began hosting online wagering sites.

Costa Rica and Belize are go-to incorporation hubs to this day. Panama started then too. Netherlands Antilles, Turks & Caicos, Dominican Republic, Grenada, St. Kitts &... wait for it... Nevis - all hosted online wagering sites.

Yes, Nevis is all the rage right now, but it turns 30 in 2026.

Big Booms

1997 was the first time the industry experienced a big win: it grew from 15 worldwide websites to 200 by the end of the year. By end of '98 it jumped from 200 to 700. Annual industry revenue peaked at ±$1 billion. US players made roughly one third of that.

Data about bingo is conflicting. Some sources mention the first real money bingo site was launched in '98. No names are given. Other sources say it was CyberBingo, but this was launched in '96. There are also mentions of Bingo Zone, but this seems to have been free to play in exchange for your personal data.

In 1998 PlanetPoker.com was launched, ushering in the era of online poker.

By the end of 1999 the growth was out of control. In Australia, Lasseters in Alice Springs got the country’s first and only online casino license—the start of a brief digital gambling experiment, before restrictive laws took effect the following year.

The United Kingdom’s territories took note: Alderney, the Isle of Man, and Gibraltar began licensing operators, providing regulatory credibility and tax advantages that made them attractive for would-be internet betting giants.

By the turn of the millennium, the industry had it's second major boom: annual iGaming revenues had surged to an estimated $2.2 billion. And this, ladies and gentlemen, was just a warmup...