History of Video Poker Online

Moving into the Online Era

Video poker was always a tremendously popular game, and when casinos started to see that it was possible to playslots online, video poker soon followed, and thus, the game of online video poker was born.

The Birth of Online Video Poker

Perhaps, moving towards the online format was one of the best things that could have ever happened to video poker, because in the past, whilst the game benefited a great deal from progressive competitions, it was never in the mainstream as the serious progressive jackpot players focused almost entirely on nickel and dollar slots.

Online video poker allowed for game manufacturers to create digital versions of video poker, which were efficient, cost effective and also a great deal more enjoyable than its offline counterpart.

Early Variations

Early on, the most popular versions of online video poker has have been deuces wild and jacks or better. These two games were both straightforward, yet added a level of complexity to the genre, especially in the case of deuces wild.
In particular, one of the most popular features that online versions of video poker enjoyed was the addition of bonus games. This was a cunning bolt-on by gaming providers as after a player won a hand; it gave them the chance to play double or nothing.

The Online Video Poker Revolution

The games popularity soon became a problem for online casinos that previously never really had to worry about the low house edge on this relatively low-maintenance standalone game. However, as it gained popularity online, casinos realized that the paytable was not actually in their favour.

With some pay-tables giving the players an edge of around 100.2% casinos realized that it wouldn’t take long before crafty online players developed tools to help them cheat money out of the house.

As a result, many online casinos increased the house edge to ensure that a positive expectation for the player could only be achieved when the jackpot was high. This meant that in standard games of online video poker, you would now be forced to play thousands of hands in the hopes of breaking even.

The Future of Online Video Poker

Despite the fact that online video poker is no longer the goldmine it used to be, it is still pretty easy to achieve over a 99% return if you use correct strategy. Combined with the various benefits and bonuses that many casinos offer, video poker has became one of the most popular progressive games around.

What lies ahead for video poker remains to be seen, but as the game grows more and more popular worldwide, one can only predict that casinos will find ways to make more money!

The rate at which progressive video poker is growing is phenomenal, and as more and more jackpots are offered, it will undoubtedly attract even more players.

The result being? Even higher jackpots for everyone.