Metaverse Casinos – Metaverse Gambling in 2023

Nowadays, companies like Meta, Decentraland, and even Microsoft are looking to take over the relatively new virtual space known as the metaverse. Online casino operators are also looking to be part of this new world – in this article, we list the best metaverse casinos in 2023 and explore what the metaverse is in more detail.

What Is the Metaverse?

First of all: there is no such thing as “THE” Metaverse, as there are several competing designs. As for the word itself, which may be the buzzword of the year – especially in tech, business and finance, it has a fuzzy definition that may depend on the ambitions of people using it.

Most concepts for metaverses see it as a graphically-rich space, which could be a place to play games, have meetings, shop, socialise, exhibit art (NFTs?), or even go to a casino. The idea is to feel, to some degree, as if you were really there.

Of course, there are already smaller metaverses or spaces with similar functions; plenty of video games let you control an avatar in a virtual space and interact with other users.

The concept harkens back to 2004’s Second Life platform, and games like World of Warcraft or even Fortnite have plenty of these elements. Thus, the idea is not that revolutionary.

Still, venture capitalists such as Matthew Ball and tech giants such as Marc Zuckerberg think that the metaverse may be a new watershed moment, similar to the advent of the internet or smartphone technology. Some are even calling it Web 3.0.

While some companies – namely Meta and Microsoft – are looking to create their own metaverse, others are hoping for a more decentralised metaverse, full of cryptocurrencies and NFTs. However, for any metaverse to be graphically appealing, it would need a lot of computing power, so it is not clear which servers would host a decentralised virtual world.

What Are Metaverse Casinos?

As the name implies, a metaverse casino is any casino you can access via the metaverse. You put on your 3D goggles or VR headset, choose an avatar, buy some virtual currency, and enter a virtual casino, where you can play slots, table games, and whatever a casino has to offer.

In the Metaverse, you should be able to win real or virtual currency, and the experience should feel extremely similar to visiting a real casino, only you're playing at a decentralized casino on the blockchain instead.

Metaverse Gambling Options

While we do not know what gambling options will be available in the metaverse yet, it will probably be the full spectrum of games you could find at a regular or online casino. That include slots, some type of 3D live casino, table games like roulette or blackjack in VR, and even sports betting.

In fact, one of the biggest gambling companies in the world, Entain (the company behind brands like Coral, Ladbrokes, bwin, Sportingbet, Eurobet, among others) is now investing 100 million pounds in developing gambling apps with NFTs, VR and augmented reality.

How Metaverse Casinos Work

You can think of metaverse casinos as a combination of online gambling sites and brick & mortar casinos. They provide the advantages and variety of online casinos in an alternative universe that users can inhabit using wearable virtual reality headsets.

As you might imagine, the best Metaverse casinos require the use of innovative technologies, such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, 3D reconstruction and AR & VR, to provide an immersive and hyper-realistic gambling experience.

Hosts for such casinos, like Metaverse Casino Manager offer support for dApps (decentralised applications), but it also allows operators to host their own domain. The Metaverse Casino Manager also supports an advanced API that enables developers to create apps for a metaverse casino platform.

Instead of the casino owning the dApps created by developers, they're simply uploaded to the blockchain. As a result, dApps cannot be removed without approval from developers. This makes metaverse casinos unique in the sense that they can provide games built by other users.

What To Expect at Metaverse Casinos

When you sign up for an account at a metaverse casino, you use an avatar to explore a virtual world. You have the ability to move around and communicate with other avatars, which creates a very realistic and interactive experience.

In general, metaverse casinos do not accept fiat currencies. Instead, like you would at the best Ethereum casinos, you will have to convert your fiat into one of the supported cryptocurrencies and deposit funds via a crypto wallet.

The Top 5 Benefits of Metaverse Casinos

Metaverse casinos are popular because of their innovative features and benefits. Let's take a closer look at the top 5 benefits below.

Top-Notch Security

One of the main benefits of these innovative casinos is that they can offer an extremely high level of security. This is all due to the fact that data and transactions are stored on a decentralised ledger that can’t be tampered with.

While all transactions are visible on the blockchain, you don't have to disclose any personal information. This means you can remain essentially anonymous, or pseudonymous if you want to be pedantic about it.

Immersive Gaming Experience

The metaverse provides a hyper-realistic online casino experience. You will feel like you are in a real casino venue where you can interact with your environment in ways that are unheard of at traditional online casinos.

Win Crypto and NFTs

While playing casino games in the Metaverse, you can win crypto and NFTs. These prizes hold real value and can be traded in the real world.

Lightning-Fast Transactions

A major benefit to playing at Metaverse casinos is the fact that transactions are incredibly quick and efficient. Most transactions are processed in seconds, and the average cost is very low compared to traditional online casinos. This is all because there is no third party needed to verify or process transactions.

100% Provably Fair Games

At traditional online casinos, the legitimacy of a casino and its games is verified by third parties. With metaverse casinos, legitimacy can be shown through the provably fair system. Built on the blockchain, provably fair games use cryptographic algorithms which guarantee that outcomes can’t be manipulated. These can then be independently verified by the user, meaning there’s no need for players to have trust in 3rd party verifiers.

Metaverse Casinos vs. Traditional Online Casinos

While traditional online casinos do a great job at embodying and replicating some brick & mortar casinos experiences, metaverse casinos take this one step further by allowing players to literally inhabit a gambling space in the same way they would at a real-life casino.

As we’ve mentioned, this is achieved through virtual reality headsets and a whole lot of software, ultimately leading to a more immersive gaming experience!

Metaverse Casinos vs. VR Casinos

The Metaverse is the next step in the evolution of online casinos. A lot of people think that Metaverse casinos and VR casinos are the same — but they're not. In fact, despite the similarities, they're quite different. For example, VR casinos simply offer games compatible with VR headsets.

On the other hand, Metaverse casinos are dedicated to recreating entire casino venues in a digital space. This allows players to interact with each other and explore a virtual environment together. Another difference between VR and Metaverse casinos is that VR casinos do not allow users to create anything new.

All games in VR casinos are created by someone else (the game developer). In contrast, at some Metaverse casinos, players can create their own content (e.g. games) that they can launch in an existing Metaverse like Decentraland or Sandbox. The only real similarity between VR and Metaverse casinos is that both require a VR headset. This is essential to provide players with an immersive experience.

Decentraland Casinos

So far, the only real successful metaverse casino has been in Decentraland – a browser-based metaverse, launched in February 2021. It is run by its users via the non-profit Decentraland Foundation, which is set to have an entire casino district known as Vegas City. Decentralized gambling still has a ways to go until mainstream adoption, but let's take a look at what's in store:

ICE Poker

In September 2021, Decentraland launched Decentral Games, which they used to power the first metaverse casino: ICE Poker. Since its launch in October 2021, its success has skyrocketed.

This free-to-play poker game now has around 6,000 users daily, and you may find 1,000 playing poker at any given moment. In just three months, the casino has raked in $7.5 million in cryptocurrencies, and it is responsible for 30% of Decentraland’s daily users.

The Cryptocurrencies of Decentraland and ICE Poker

How ICE Poker Works

While you can play poker there, ICE Poker is certainly not your average poker room. To play here, you will need to go through the following steps:

1. Connect your wallet

Connect your Metamask wallet. This is an Ethereum blockchain-powered wallet, which also functions as a virtual (anonymous) ID, encrypted with a unique passphrase. In the case of ICE Poker and Decentraland, you can use Ethereum (ETH), Decentral Games (DG), Decentral Games (ICE), and Decentral Games Governance (xDG).

2. Get an ICE wearable

To play at ICE Poker, you will need some clothes – no, you cannot play naked! You may choose between purchasing these clothes as NFTs or renting them. If you own any of these NFTs, you can even rent them out, allowing you to earn.

3. Create a DCL account

Create your Decentraland avatar and equip it with NFT wearables.

4. Play and earn

Once you have your account and something to wear, it is time to start earning. You can earn ICE and DG in a number of ways:

• Check in daily and complete 3 challenges
• Compete for daily leaderboards and win based on chip winnings
• Delegate your NFT wearables to other players for a share of the revenue
• Mint new NFT wearables to sell on the market place
• Collect ultra-rare DG Diamond Hands wearables
• Mine ICE to sell to other players (needed in order to mint rare NFT wearables)
• Score on the top of the monthly leaderboard to earn DG

Atari casino

One of the pioneers in video and arcade games, Atari is moving forward to develop its own crypto casino in Vegas City, where players will be able to use exclusive video-game-related wearables, as well as win money.

The casino primarily offers a selection of table games and slots, like the ones that you can find at traditional online casinos. So, if you're looking to enjoy casino classics like poker, roulette, baccarat, blackjack, you should check out Atari’s gaming venue in Decentraland. When you visit the virtual casino venue, you can test your luck by facing ball-shaped robot dealers.

Other Casinos in Decentraland’s Vegas City

Atari and ICE Poker are not the only companies looking for a slice of Vegas City. This February, Kings Entertainment Group (owner of brands like LottoKings and WinTrillions), announced that it has purchased a URL and has acquired virtual real estate in Vegas City.

VRChat: The Most Popular Metaverse Online?

Released in 2020, VRChat was initially a social VR application that allowed users to create and share their own content in a virtual world. Since then, it has developed into something much bigger. Although VRChat doesn't call itself a metaverse platform, it does offer all of the best metaverse features.

Not only can you create an avatar and interact with people worldwide, but you can also build virtual worlds and invite people to them. Because of this, it has become known by many as the best Metaverse online. And since you can meet up with other users within the platform and play games together (like Poker), it is by far one of the leading contenders in the burgeoning Metaverse casino space.

Other Metaverse Casinos Currently Available or in Development

While Decentraland has taken the lead in terms of Metaverse casinos, there are plenty of rivals looking to create their own virtual casino spaces.

SandVegas Casino

If you're looking to bet on sports and casino games in the metaverse, you may want to consider SandVegas Casino. Created by Sand Vegas Casino Club, this metaverse casino is hosted in The Sandbox – one of the leading metaverse NFT projects. Not only can you play the latest and greatest slots and live casino games, but you can also place bets on popular sports and leagues.

MetaHero Casino

There is also speculation that MetaHero will have casinos as well, though there is not much available info yet.

An Overview of Ongoing Metaverse Casino Projects 2023

Rank	Casino	Metaverse	URL	Currency
1	ICE Poker	Decentraland	ice.decentral.games	ICE, ETH, DG, xDG
2	Atari casino	Decentraland	?	?
3	SandVegasCasinoClub	Sandbox	sandvegascasino.club	SAND
4	MetaHero Casino	MetaHero	metahero.io	HERO

Zamsino – A New Upcoming Metaverse Casino Project in 2023

Zamsino, one of the world's biggest iGaming portals, has announced its plans to build Zamsino Crypto Casino Metaverse. Set to launch in 2023, this upcoming blockchain-based virtual casino metaverse project is expected to change how token-based metaverse casinos work. Thanks to the in-game editor, it will be the first project of its kind to allow users to build and monetise their own slots and table games within the metaverse.

Built on the Ethereum blockchain, users will be able to use various cryptos for direct deposits. For example, the casino will support cryptocurrencies such as SOL, ESDC, WBTC, and, of course, ETH. All winnings from slots and table games will be paid in the native (TBA) token and then swapped immediately to ETH on the Uniswap cryptocurrency exchange. This will give users the option to then trade ETH for any of the other supported cryptocurrencies.

Types of Casinos in the Metaverse

While we have discussed the several new casino projects in various metaverses, it is definitely worth considering what types of metaverse casinos we can expect in the future.

Crypto Casinos in the Metaverse

Many of the existing metaverse casino projects are crypto casinos that run on their own native currencies, along with ETH, though exchanging your fiat currencies or BTC for them should not be a problem.

NFT Casinos in the Metaverse

For most people, NFTs and NFT casinos are a bit of a murky and poorly understood topic. However, in terms of the Metaverse and its casinos, the most common use for an NFT is a type of ownership token, which will grant you some type of revenue share.

Decentralised Casinos

Decentralised casino games are gambling DAPPS (decentralised apps). It is not yet clear how this would relate to the metaverse, as while most casinos accept decentralised currencies, the apps and casinos are not decentralised – rather, they are run by the casino owners.

Licensed Casinos in the Metaverse

In our opinion, for metaverse gambling to truly take off, it would need to have licensed casinos. If in a few years having a VR or augmented reality headset becomes as commonplace as owning a smartphone is now, we can be sure that most established casino companies will either cash in on the trend and develop their own mini metaverses, or buy real estate in certain existing VR spaces.

Most likely, you will be able (or even obliged) to use regular fiat currencies while you play your favourite slots and table games in a virtual space.

Summary: The Future of Metaverse Casinos

As Microsoft and Meta rush to develop their own metaverses, smaller crypto/NFT projects are springing up. Whether these casino NFTs are a good investment is unclear at this point. In order for any casino (even a Bitcoin casino) not to be blocked in most jurisdictions, it will need proper licensing, and it is not known under which licensing these casinos will operate.

What we do know is that metaverse gambling is going to be one of the hot topics for the next few years in the world of online gambling.

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