Is Virtual Reality Poker Nearly Here?

Lets start by taking a cold, hard detached view of the state of online poker. Right now, poker is no where near the behemoth of online gambling that it was a decade ago. Fact is that the average age of a regular player is in their 40s, slightly higher rolling but there has been a decline in the number of players playing online. Understandably poker isn't the kind of casino game you just pick up and play - it takes a great deal of effort in order to win a hand, let alone come out trumps. But why are numbers slowing down - and is there a chance that virtual reality may be the future?

It's well known that VR has been at the absolute forefront on recent game design. The big players in the game development world have invested millions in the tech, and soon enough we'll enjoy the benefits. They have been enticed towards this because easy as it is to keep churning out regular slots games (no harm in that), the gaming public demands a much more immersive experience. This is especially the case with the essential 21-35 years old market who traditionally made up the core of high rolling poker players.

 

Video poker is always going to fall slightly short in terms of engagement and actual action. To put it simply, poker players enjoy the competition - and this is the way online gaming has been going for eons. It's simply not good enough to play against a machine, which begs the question of how to make poker relevant in a rapidly changing games market.

There's solid prospects when it comes to how VR could absolutely refashion the gaming industry. So far progress has been solid, but basic. There isn't yet enough exposure or accessibility to the hardware that would be expected to play a decent poker hand at the likes of Royal Vegas Online Casino, at least not in a truly immersive 3D virtual world. That being said, there's also masses of potential in how VR play could potentially bring poker back into the forefront of online gaming.

 

Access to the tech is predicted to not just rise astonishingly before the close of the decade, but also become much higher quality and far cheaper. Currently a stand alone, top of the range VR headset costs close to $1000 (US), but the industry reckons that in a year or two the same standard kit will be almost given away to anyone with a smartphone contract. That's because VR is predicted to be the mass media of the next decade, and online gambling/poker is a small but lucrative facet of that.

Making VR poker successful is all going to be down to both speed and accurate card play. Casinos who host such forms of poker will be obliged to ensure there's no facility for cheating - which means cards will have to include some form of fail safe that prevents other players from catching a glimpse. Yet there has to be a fashion of protecting brand new players, possibly using VR for the first time, in order to keep matches fair and competitive.

 

Speed of play is always a bugbear with online poker. Decent sites like to include some form of time-out whereby if a player is dilly-dallying they miss their turn in the play and forfeit the hand. With VR - at least to start with - there's a good chance that people will muddle about trying to figure out the controls and comprehend the immersion. Expect next generation VR Poker to feature heavily in practice play before the big bucks get wagered.

 

No doubt there's a few issues with how well VR can translate to poker. The technology has already demonstrated how well it can work with slots, and hypothetically craps, roulette and so forth - but card games is a different beast. It will come right eventually but needs a lot more exposure to ensure it becomes the success that poker deserves.