Many gamers actively embrace the idea that their gaming pastime has moved to an online setting. Online gambling is growing every year and in some parts of the world is outpacing the traditional land-based casinos as the preferred venue for dedicated players. It is easy for anyone searching for a list of all NZ online casinos to find a comprehensive list, along with benefits and bonus information, by entering a few handy words into any search engine. Technology is not just a welcome addition to the online gaming industry anymore – it is an integral part of it. So how long will it be before robots overtake humans in the online casinos? And what will that mean for the gaming community?
IMAGE: PEXELS
What Will The “Bot Invasion” Consist Of?
Players and developers alike are already working on two ways in which technology can replace humans in the online gambling sphere. The first is that a player can set up a robot to be a virtual player, sitting at the table, playing slots, roulette, blackjack, or any one of the many online casino games which are so beloved of the gaming community.
This bot player will never need breaks, never need to sleep, and will play the game for as long as its controller permits. The other way in which bots could find themselves at an online casino is as the dealer. Like the robot player, the robot dealer doesn’t need any breaks, nor does it need basics like wages either.
Are Robot Players “A Thing”?
The keen gamer, who enjoys online gambling because it offers excitement, challenge, and a chance to pit their wits, skills, and nerve against other players and the house, may be surprised to learn that some gamers would abrogate this exciting pastime to robots. After all, robots don’t feel the emotion, or the thrill, of a good win. They are, by definition, robots, so the likelihood that a robot will feel the spark of an exciting game is remote.
But some players prefer to employ robots to play online for them. Casinos recognise this, and many have explicitly forbidden bots to be used on their sites. They even apply special algorithms to track down players who exhibit suspiciously non-human traits, and any player caught using a bot can find themselves banned for life from that site. So yes, robot players are a thing; they are just not a welcome thing.
What About Robot Dealers?
Technology is advancing rapidly, sometimes to the detriment of human jobs. Replacing humans with bots is seen as a cost-saving exercise, seeing bots don’t need wages, health and safety protection, even breaks or holidays. At online casinos, seeing the person who is dealing, or throwing the roulette ball or spinning the wheel, is already distant from the player, there’s a case to be made for casinos to use bots as dealers. Like robot players, robot dealers don’t need breaks, and so can play for as long as the game goes, without interruption.
But
Why do people go to casinos, online or land-based? They go mainly because of the excitement, the thrill, the anticipation that winning money can have, and yes, they go because they want to be able to beat the house. It takes skill to win at table games like poker and blackjack, and even working out the odds of where the roulette ball will land is a challenge. The reason casinos have largely banned bot players is because the bot can play continuously.
This increases the odds that casinos will lose considerable sums of money to the bot player. On the flip side, there is also the detrimental effect playing all day every day can have on the human supplying the bot with its gaming money. Most casinos take their responsibilities to player safety seriously, and actively allowing someone to play 24/7 is frowned on by the online gaming community as it encourages dangerous gambling habits.
But Robot Dealers Are Good, Right?
Replacing human dealers with robot dealers may sound like a cost-saving practice for the casino. After an initial expense layout, there is little that robot dealers need in the way of maintenance, the way that a human employee would. However, the very act of taking the human out of the casino environment can be upsetting, or downright unnerving, to players used to the friendly to-and-fro between themselves and their dealers.
A dealer can read the table, can entertain, even flirt a little, and keep things lively and exciting for the players. There’s also the fact that once the robot dealer has been created, it never takes long for someone to learn how to hack them.
So, Will It Happen?
Twenty years ago, the online gaming industry was in its infancy, still miles behind land-based casinos; now the list of online casinos grows by the day. Technology will keep on working out new ways of doing things. Some casinos already use robot dealers, not to replace live ones, but to fill in during breaks, so the possibility of the live dealer being overtaken by robots is not entirely unlikely.
Those who have developed online bot players have already started to work out the simple ways around a “bot detector”, such as programming the bot player to take breaks, make the odd mistake, and ask questions or post comments.
Time Will Tell
Players are the ultimate determiner of whether casinos can afford to lose the human touch, and to date, they don’t seem too keen on having live dealers replaced with robots. Casinos will continue to try and detect bot players, but programmers will find a new way around the detectors. The challenge will, therefore, be to find the fine line between allowing just enough human interaction, while protecting the casino’s business.
If you are interested in even more technology-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels then we have a lot to choose from.
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