When Facebook announced its name change to Meta, the tech world had many questions, but one of them seemed to be the most asked of them all: what is that Meta, and what does it have to do with us? Turns out, Meta is not a figment of Facebook’s imagination, but rather a concept dating back to 1992. So, not a new thing, but Facebook’s introduction brought the Metaverse to a wider audience. The question of today is, what is the Metaverse? And what, for the love of casinos, is Metaverse gambling? Stay tuned, dear readers. We are about to embark on a virtual journey around digital cities, VR landmarks, and tour Metaverse casinos located in Decentraland, the Las Vegas of VR gambling.
What is the Metaverse
The Metaverse is a virtual web of 3D worlds existing in the virtual space, i.e., completely online. The Metaverse is a term often used interchangeably with Web 3.0, the next generation of the internet.
In the Metaverse, players build worlds using different technologies. They mix and match them to create a unique experience that is neither VR, MR, nor AR – but all of them combined.
Understanding the Metaverse can be both easy and complex, depending on the angle from which you approach the subject. At its core, the Metaverse represents – like its name suggests – a virtual universe that’s the digital equivalent of the real cosmos. Much like the cosmos, the digital universe consists of worlds (like planets) in which visitors from the real world traipse around using their avatars.
Some of the most popular Metaverse worlds include Decentraland, The Sandbox, Genesis World, and many others. Of course, Decentraland is the most famous one, with countless visitors who are there to have fun and use many of its perks.
Short Metaverse History
We’ll keep this brief. The history of Metaverse officially begins in 1992, when the name first appeared in the sci-fi novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Stephenson is the first person to use the term to refer to a 3D virtual space.
However, it was in 2003 when the world got to meet its first rudimentary version of the Metaverse. Second Life, the project developed by the Liden Lab team headed by Phillip Rosedale, was the first virtual online world. Three years later, Roblox joined the scene to offer players a chance to create content and share it with other users. Another key point is the emergence of Bitcoin in 2009. The blockchain platform and cryptocurrency influenced the creation of hundreds of other blockchain-based currencies.
The year 2011 introduced the novel Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, another sci-fi novel that discussed online virtual worlds. However, it took three years to see the Facebook acquisition of Oculus and the first version of Decentraland (but this happened in 2015). If you remember the viral Pokémon Go game that took the world by storm in 2016, you might remember it included the collection of AR objects scattered across the globe. This, along with the launch of Fortnite the next year, influenced the appearance of Axie Infinity, the first virtual world game. Axie Infinity runs on the Ethereum blockchain and has its native cryptocurrency that can be exchanged for other cryptocurrencies or fiat currencies. Finally, Microsoft’s Mesh and Facebook’s Meta rebrand pushed the envelope further and brought the Metaverse under the spotlight.
The Meta Effect on Gambling
Imagine a situation in which you are standing at a virtual table in a virtual world and watching Pepe the Frog spin the roulette wheel. You aren’t there – but your avatar, who looks just like you always imagined you’d look if you lived in Cyberpunk 2077 – is, which means you are too. You step away to browse other gambling tables and finally find a blackjack table that sounds interesting – so you decide to convert some ETH or MANA and bet on a round. The legendary meme Pepe the Frog once again plays the part of a croupier and deals the cards as you chat about the weather in the virtual Metaverse casino.
How does this sound, too futuristic? It’s actually not. The described situation is very much a (virtual) reality in Metaverse casinos. The Metaverse is here and it’s completely ready to host players looking for top-tier gambling experiences – you just need to know where to look.
How is it different from playing casino games at regular online casinos?
Let’s try to explain the difference between online and virtual gambling at Decentraland gambling facilities. We’ll start by giving a rundown of a typical visit to a Metaverse casino.
The story begins with an avatar which you can customize however you want
You enter a world and then decide which virtual world locations to explore
The backpack carries special items you’ve purchased at the marketplace with cryptocurrencies
You can collect, purchase, sell, and use NFTs acquired via your crypto wallet
You then enter a casino and join a table that you like using cryptocurrencies for wagering
In other words, to get inside this type of world, you’ll need a crypto wallet and enough crypto money to get into the world and create an avatar. The avatar guides you through the world as you explore buying land, visiting virtual museums, attending concerts, and playing casino games. NFTs are a handy thing to have – but you can also sell them if you don’t want them.
Important Elements of Metaverse Gambling
If you are to enter the virtual gambling Metaverse, there are a couple of items you should pay attention to first. The Metaverse realm is a virtual one, which means none of the items you’ll see there exist in the real world. On the other hand, IT experts and crypto enthusiasts are working hard on bringing items from the real world into the digital one, with the ultimate goal of merging the real and virtual worlds into one mixed reality.
Hence, when you step into a digital world and go searching for Metaverse casinos, you will likely need everything you’d otherwise need in real-life – payments and proof of identity included.
We’ll discuss Metaverse casino payments in the next chapter, but first, let’s focus on the proof of identity part.
NFTs are non-fungible tokens used as proof of authenticity of a digital asset.
The definition might confuse non-tech-savvy players, so here’s an example from real life: the Mona Lisa. There is only one Mona Lisa, and although replicas have been copied and pasted onto various items (both online and offline), there is still one Mona Lisa. The same thing happens with NFTs – they are unique tokens, and no two identical tokens may exist. In that regard, every NFT is a digital Mona Lisa that cannot be cloned, and every copy is just that – a copy, but not the original.
Moreover, the ‘non-fungible’ part of these tokens means they cannot be exchanged for another token. For instance, money is fungible, or interchangeable. A $1 bill is worth $1 – and every bill is the same. The NFT craze began in 2020, but it blew up in 2021.
The NFT Craze
We mentioned that NFTs translate into non-fungible tokens used as proof of authenticity. NFT tokens are digital units of data stored on the blockchain. The tokens use blockchain technology to establish the proof of authenticity or ownership of a specific asset on the web. Thanks to blockchain, NFT owners can keep a transparent logbook of their NFT sales and purchases, publicly visible to everyone on the internet. That way, every NFT can be tracked as it goes from hand to hand on the Ethereum blockchain.
The story of how NFTs shot to mainstream fame was when one NFT was sold for $69 million. The author of the NFT is Beeple, a now-famous digital artist who has had his “Everydays – The First 5,000 Days” NFT sold at an auction at Christie’s. Other notable mentions include CryptoPunks, a collection of 10,000 unique punk-themed characters created by Larva Labs. Larva Labs created the icons in 2017 and distributed them for free to users populating the Ethereum blockchain – the only requirement is that they had to have a Metamask Ethereum wallet. CryptoPunks are among the most expensive NFTs ever sold, and even Evolution – yes, Evolution – has dabbled in crypto & NFT tech with the purchase of four CryptoPunks NFTs and their implementation in a video slot.
Since then, the gambling world has been abuzz – and gambling brands are rushing to think of how they can join the Metaverse gambling landscape. There have been efforts to introduce gambling websites with in-built NFTs. The players gather there and win NFTs that they can exchange elsewhere or turn into real money. More on that below.
Meta Payments Meet Crypto
metaverse crypto payments
Metaverse runs on the blockchain, so it works with cryptocurrencies and NFTs, rather than fiat currencies. Of course, you can translate the money you’ve earned in the Meta world back into real-time money like USD and EUR, but in the metaverse, you use crypto banking.
Currently, the most popular cryptocurrencies used for metaverse gambling are ETH & BTC, but these realms are also devising their native currencies such as MANA and SAND. In fact, if you were to visit Decentraland, you would surely find MANA payments as MANA is the native Decentraland currency tempting. Furthermore, the currency is getting stronger by the day, as more and more players flock to the Metaverse’s most popular world.
Virtual Land-Based Gambling – Meet Web3 Casinos
Web3 Online Casinos
What are Decentraland casinos? And how does playing casino games in the Metaverse even look? Let’s take a closer look at Metaverse casinos in Decentraland to try and understand their function.
Metaverse casinos are virtual casinos hosted in a Metaverse world such as Decentraland. Players visit the casinos using avatars and play using cryptocurrencies. For most Metaverse worlds, registration entails a handful of personal facts and short info, as well as a crypto wallet. Once there, the players can convert their cryptocurrency into other currencies and use them for playing casino games.
Web3 casinos – online casinos built in the Metaverse, or the next-gen version of the internet – are sites using new Web 3.0 technologies such as VR, AR, and MR.
Web3 casinos, although they sound futuristic and sci-fi, actually aren’t sci-fi at all. They are real, and dozens of meta virtual casinos prove it. Just some of the most popular casinos in the Metaverse are the Tominoya Casino and the Atari Casino. Atari, the legendary maker of video games, has entered virtual gambling waters with its Atari Casino located in Vegas City on Decentraland. Visitors are given the luxury to play Atari games and collect Atari NFTs, and Atari Tokens, or ATRI, while inside.
Another great example of a Web3 casino is the Rollbit Casino. This crypto casino is the first virtual casino with native NFTs. The tokens are Rollbots, tiny robots gathered on the Ethereum blockchain. Owning a token gives many advantages to Rollbit casino goers – they can earn passive income, play special games, as well as enter the weekly lottery events using just their Rollbot NFTs.
NFTs, crypto, and the mix of technology give players almost unlimited possibilities – and we have barely scratched the surface of the potential that Metaverse casinos offer.
Our Tour Around Decentraland Casinos
This guide for Metaverse casinos would not be complete without our own excursion into Decentraland. Our team traipsed around the Decentraland landmarks, including the Atari casino situated in the gambling suburb of Vegas City. It was a great sight, of course, but we have to say – we loved Tominoya Casino even more.
The visit of the Tominoya Casino included a tour of the premises and the ground floor of the gambling facility. We strolled around the gambling area, taking a peek at blackjack and roulette tables operated by Pepe the Frog. A great thing about Meta casinos is that you need only approach the table and an option to join the table, talk to the dealer, and pick a deposit currency pops up. It is very easy and simple, making it a curious experience tech-savvy fans would definitely love.
It is a unique gambling experience that bridges the gap between land-based, live, and online casino games. It’s just like a land-based casino adventure, except you don’t physically visit the site – because the site exists only virtually. Odd, but surprisingly exhilarating. We don’t doubt many will find the concept a wonderful experience.
Credit given to Casinosonline.com: https://www.casinosonline.com/articles/metaverse-gambling-guide/
