How Online Casinos Work Behind the Scenes
With the advent of the internet, so too came the advent of online casinos. Now, you don’t even need to leave the comfort of your home (or your favorite chair) to try your hand at turning a few cents into a few hundred dollars.
Behind the scenes, however, there is a score of designers, admins, and more that keep the online casino running. Read on to learn more about how an online casino works behind the scenes.
1. It Starts with Software
Before an online casino can do anything, they need to have a base software. This software is what will connect the casino to an RNG (random number generator) or to sports results if it’s a sportsbook. In general, most online casinos don’t develop their own RNG, and instead hook their casino to an external one to save on development costs.
Because of the popularity of modern online casinos, some developers have started creating beginner packages of code that can be purchased and turned into an online casino. Of course, this general code can be expanded on to add unique bonuses and flourishes, but many casinos choose not to, instead slapping their own graphics on it and just utilizing it as is.
There is one exception to the above, and that is online casinos, which utilize live dealers to deliver results. It isn’t common, and not as popular as casinos once hoped. But in this case, software is still needed for player inputs to be read by the dealers and vice versa.
2. Next Comes Graphic Design
Although online gambling truly is simply interacting with an algorithm, what makes it fun is all of the money casinos dump into the graphic design. No longer are you clicking to run a function, but rather you are rolling a dice and watching the number on screen.
This is the part of online casino development that starts to become fun, with different casinos choosing a variety of unique themes for their gaming machines. Some casinos choose to stick with the more popular themes, while others create one that is uniquely their own, like Bit.rocket on Mintdice.com.
It is during this stage that most online casinos begin to brainstorm how they will find customers, and the type of bonuses they will offer. This will look a little different for each casino, based on the customer base they want to target.
3. Then Testing Begins
Opening an online casino is not a risk-free endeavor. Even those who purchase expensive, ready-to-launch software packages typically have to undergo testing. This is because a single bug could allow a player to drain the system. Not only that, but many countries require audits for casinos to legally register—and these too are part of the testing process.
It is recommended to employ a third-party audit, as well as to perform a penetration test to ensure the casino’s coffers are safe from malicious hackers.
4. Obtain a License
There are very few countries in the world that allow the operation of unlicensed casinos (though they do exist). Regardless, in order to serve customers abroad, an online casino must be licensed.
The process looks different in every country, but generally, an online casino must abide by all laws in every country it intends to serve. This includes KYC and AML regulations, the GDPR in Europe, and more. This stage can also take a long time, as obtaining a license is not an overnight process, especially for an online casino.
5. Start Marketing
Unfortunately, the online casino space is a saturated one, and you will have a hard time trying to stand out at first. It is even more difficult for the websites that rely on other players to make the experience fun (such as poker), as it can be difficult to draw a large crowd to a new casino all at the same time.
Most casinos spend years working out their marketing plan. There are many options, such as offering sign-up bonuses, contracting influencers and streamers, or online ads. Unfortunately, online ads for gambling are illegal in many countries, most notably certain states in the United States, which can limit your options drastically.
Lately, even email services and forums like Reddit have begun to restrict marketing and anything that can be seen as marketing on their platform, leading to even more struggles than before.
6. Establish Customer Service
Although getting customers is a battle, keeping them is even harder. This is because if you are offering a sign-up bonus, many leave after they receive it, heading to another platform with another bonus.
Additionally, no matter how well you plan in the initial steps, problems and bugs will arise, and generally the audience that gambles is not the most patient—meaning you may want to consider establishing around-the-clock customer service for best customer retention.
Obviously, this is expensive and difficult to staff—which is why most casino creators end up doing it themselves the first few years. Others outsource to countries like the Philippines, but the issue there is that while they can answer queries, most casino creators can’t give the access necessary for them to solve the larger problems, leading to them needing to handle everything themselves anyway.
7. Maintenance Never Ends
No matter how successful your online casino becomes, you will always need to keep maintenance in mind. Not only does software grow easier to hack over time, but technology itself begins to degrade, meaning you might need new servers, new code, and new additions to keep players interested.
Overall, we don’t recommend the online casino business because of how hard it is to grow to a point where you will actually make a profit, with many owners dumping thousands into their websites to only make pennies. That being said, it can be fun at the same time, so as long as you keep your expectations in check and don’t plan to make a profit, go ahead and build the online casino of your dreams.
