The first online casino became active in 1996. But the history of online gambling actually can be traced back to 1994. That was the year the governing body of Antigua Barbuda passed “The Free Trade and Processing Zone Act” that allowed licenses to be granted to online operations that wanted to open casinos on the internet. With the technological possibility of online gambling already in the air, this new law made it legal to license and operate online casinos from the Antigua Barbuda jurisdiction.  Of those  who saw this as the  lucrative opportunity that it was - two brothers - Andrew and Mark Rivkin - formed the company Cryptologic, and began creating software solutions to safely handle financial transactions with unprecedented encryption designs.  At the same time, both Microgaming and Starnet Communications were formed - all in the same year Antigua Barbuda passed its groundbreaking law.Heritage of gambling is somehow related to the Chinese culture. Chinese culture has been the home of numerous gambling games. Keno, a popular Chinese game is one of the original forms of the lottery games. Keno has evolved over thousands of years and is now played in played in various diluted versions in hundreds of casinos around the globe.

Another ancient Chinese game to have attained popularity has been Pai Gow. Pai Gow Pokr is the Americanized and hybridized version of the original game, it blends in the game of Pai Gow with certain elements of poker, to produce an interesting and simple game, loved by people around the globe and played in numerous casinos. However many critics, quite do not like the new version and banish it for being a too simplistic take on the otherwise “beautiful and complex” game from ancient Chinese culture.China is not the only country to have contributed to the world of gambling, a number of European games have also made it to the league of popular games in the world of casinos. Games like Craps, Baccarat, Roulette and Black jack, all have roots in parts of Europe. Craps has its roots in the rich heritage of dice throwing games that have been around for a long time.