New Zealand
Players Welcome
The first online casino NZ facing site launched some time ago, but only long after iGaming appeared in other parts of the world. In fact, the online gambling industry goes back as far as the mid-1990s. There is, however, some dispute as to which the first gambling site actually was. If asked, many will say that Gaming Club Casino was first, which is a site that is still around today, and even considered by many to be the best online casino NZ has to offer.
But it turns out that Gaming Club Casino being first isn’t indisputably true. The history is a bit more complicated than that, and nailing down which the first company was to get gambling online is a tricky business.
Let’s take a closer look and get a better idea. After all, appreciating the online casino NZ world of today is also about appreciating history.
What About Microgaming?
Microgaming, the company behind Gaming Club, is currently amongst the biggest online casino NZ companies in the world, and has been around for decades. The company itself claims that it had working iGaming software as far back as 1994, which may indeed be true. But the fact of the matter is that this software didn’t have player tracking systems or even management tools until 1995. This means that, simply put, this was not the official birth of gambling sites.
Meanwhile at the same time another company, Cryptologic, was racing towards a similar goal. Though in this case the secure online transaction system came first, followed by founding brothers Mark and Andrew Rivkin needing a reason for the system to exist. They thus quickly set about developing online casino software.
So, Who Was First?
Looking deeper it can be seen that even Microgaming themselves don’t actually claim that Gaming Club Casino was the first in the world. It is instead claimed by the company that the site is the first to be launched in collaboration with Microgaming, thus not actually declaring that it was the first in history.
It turns out that, in a strange twist, the first gambling site actually appears to be casino.co.za. Although it isn’t 100% confirmed, this online casino was launched possibly as far back as 1994, only available to South African players. Evidence suggests that it was casino.co.za that went on to become Gaming Club Casino, now seen as a best online casino NZ players have access to.
Either way, without this early history the online casino NZ sites we have access to now would never have been possible.