Rebecca McCarthy 
The entertainment industry is always changing as technology enables new uses of existing ideas and, as a result, user expectations change over time. What impressed us yesterday, no longer impresses us today; therefore, companies must innovate their service to continuously evolve. From streaming to interactive media, change is occurring across the board. Online casinos are no exception to this trend. Online casinos have also made a move toward more modern and innovative mechanisms to keep users engaged longer.
Game on: why gamification keeps players hooked
Gamification is the application of typical game elements—like point scoring, competition and rules of play—to non-game contexts. This leverages the psychology of engagement to make fun and rewarding experiences out of, otherwise dull and transactional interactions. Gamification has proven effective—with online casinos being a prime example. The reason it works is that our brains love rewards. Gamification exploits this by making boring or repetitive activities more interesting, turning them into a kind of game. But this is not the only gimmick used by online casinos to capture the attention of players and increase the number of online users, just think of the immersive design of the various games or the lucrative bonuses they promote, as can be seen by visiting the casino section from Sportsgrid, one of the best comparators in the iGaming industry. With the introduction of Leaderboards, Daily Challenges, and Achievement Badges and also incorporating social media features to give that sense of progression and accomplishment, online casinos are creating a user experience that is more engaging and stickier. These features reflect characteristics of video games and social media, and as a result, the addition of gamification increases the dynamism and interactivity of the casino environment to change it from a passive experience to a continuous adventure.
From Pokémon to poker: how classic games shaped online casinos
Many popular games in the market have explored how game mechanics can be valuable to maintain players.
For instance, Pokémon Go provided an augmented reality experience with a street game element based around achievement, fostering game play in real-world situations. The Sims allowed users to use a sandbox to build lives and narratives while leveraging goals and rewards systems to keep players engaged. World of Warcraft (WoW) perfected the model of leveling up, grinding for gear, and embarking on missions, each embodying measurable progress and recognition of contributions.
These fundamentals of player experience—progress, reward, and immersion—have emerged in the online casino arena. Users play online games, unlocking levels, collecting virtualism, and accumulating points redeemable towards bonuses or prizes rather than spinning a slot machine or playing a round of poker. Like traditional video games, the objective is to keep the player immersed in the narrative and experience, rather than a one-off experience.
This moves from original to game affordances adds narrative and structured strategies to engage players, heightening length of play experiences and increasing user loyalty in a very competitive industry.
Smarter play: the emergence of new technologies
The emergence of new technologies, like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) has wholly elevated, and in fact, gamified online casinos. AI and ML can track a player’s behavior in real-time, and then use that information to enable a platform to provide personalized challenges, personalized rewards, and adaptive gameplay experiences. For example, if a player’s natural behavior indicates they often play blackjack, they may offer them missions associated with blackjack or suggest specialized tables for their playing level. In essence, AI keeps users engaged by controlling the pace and difficulty of a task based on their play style, and ML identifies times of disengagement to leverage targeted incentives to keep a user active.
Together, these technologies do not just support gamification, they empower it by making it smarter and more seamless. Players receive a fully personalized experience that looks and feels less like gambling, and more like playing an individualized rewarding game, and countless players see this as a very persuasive gap between conventional gaming and online casinos.
