Wearable Tech and Gambling – Is It the Future?

Posted by Harry Kane on Thursday, June 28, 2018

While there’s a tendency to believe that the relationship between technology and gambling is relatively youthful, this is not strictly accurate.

To understand this further, cast your minds back to the 1964 Bond hit Goldfinger, which starred the rugged Sean Connery and arguably remains one of the very best titles in this long and iconic franchise. Introducing the eponymous antagonist during a game of gin rummy, the film shows how Goldfinger is able to leverage an earpiece to receive information about the hands that his opponents are dealt.

This represents blatant cheating, of course, but it also highlights the natural affinity that has always existed between gambling and technology.  It also showcases the slightly fractious nature of this relationship, with technology historically used by players to gain an unfair advantage over their rivals in bricks-and-mortar casinos.

The emergence of online and mobile gambling has changed the boundaries of this relationship, however, with technology now a key driver of the sector and new innovations being developed to enhance the virtual experience of players. Take wearable tech, for example, which has a host of potential applications in the marketplace and is already underpinning a gradual evolution.

In this article, we’ll explore this in further detail, while asking whether wearable technology represents the future of the gambling industry.

Gambling and Technology – A Brief History

While Goldfinger’s earpiece represented an early example of how gamblers could theoretically utilise technology to deceive the house, the 1970s saw individuals go to even greater lengths in a bid to achieve a competitive advantage.

It was at this time that a mathematician named J. Doyne Farmer constructed a machine that would improve his odds of winning at roulette, with his innovation proving so efficient that he was effectively banned from bricks-and-mortar casinos throughout the U.S.. While these establishments could not prove that he was cheating, he was significantly beating the odds on a regular basis and this was enough to secure his blacklisting.

Farmer’s innovation was built on a simple premise, which was that significant data could be harnessed in the period after the ball began to spin and before it began to drop. The theory suggested that this information would be enough to allow for a real-time measurement and computation, which subsequently improved your decision making and enhanced your odds of winning (doubling your chances of being successful in some instances).

Utilising basic physics and live data, this simple method did not require Farmer to predict precisely where the ball would fall. Instead, it leveraged precise information to increase his odds of winning by an average of 3%, which was enough to ensure that he ultimately won far more than he lost during a typical gambling session.

So how did Farmer’s device work? Essentially, he built a sensor with a switch for his toe, which he tapped every time that the ball was in motion. He would also tap a separate switch each time the wheel turned, and this provided live data related to the speed of the ball and its estimated drop. At this point, Farmer would receive a signal from a small, pocket computer that highlighted where he should place his wager, and he would then apply this before the time had come for all bets to be placed.

This innovative device required Farmer to calibrate each wheel, which in turn required a period of watching and testing before he wagered his hard-earned money. The results were staggering, however, and the system represented the most sophisticated use of technology to pre-empt results in the history of casino gameplay.

Gonzalo Garcia-Pelayo utilised a similar method to earn a small fortune in the 1990s, with one win of €600,000 in Madrid highlighting his incredible success. Once again, Garcia-Pelayo worked on the premise that roulette and similar casino games are not entirely random, and that recorded results from games could be analysed by sophisticated software to discover the probabilities of winning at any given time.

Once again, this application of technology also capitalised on the fact that there were imperfections in all corporeal roulette wheels, and it ended with Garcia-Pelayo being banned from casinos on the back of his supposedly ‘unethical’ methodology.

The Changing Times – Wearable Tech and Online Gameplay

While these progressive innovations were way ahead of their time, they would have absolutely no impact in the realm of virtual gambling. After all, these systems were designed to analyse and react to imperfections in corporeal roulette wheels, while also tapping into basic laws surrounding physics and gravity.

Online and mobile gambling, which now accounts for an impressive 34% of the industry as a whole, has no such imperfections, while operators have also taken decisive steps to ensure that the results generated are entirely random.

To this end, all online casino games are underpinned by a Random Number Generator (RNG), which makes it impossible for players to pre-empt outcomes in games of chance or try to identify sequences in an entirely opportunistic range of results.

With this in mind, technology has evolved to play an entirely different and more positive role in the world of online gambling. More specifically, it is now creating new and increasingly authentic gambling experiences in real-time, while innovative wearables are being designed to elevate mobile gaming onto an entirely new level.

Perhaps the best example of this exists in the form of virtual reality (VR) headsets, which have already breached the consumer mainstream and promises to bridge the remaining gap between corporeal and online gambling. We’ve already seen technology narrow this chasm over the course of the last decade (through enhanced graphics and the development of more authentically-paced games), but VR represents the final frontier in this evolution.

Developers are already seizing on the release of VR headsets such as Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear, with NetEnt poised to release it’s first virtual reality slot game later in 2018. This will be launched as a VR iteration of the iconic Gonzo’s Quest, which will enable players to interact with the title’s exotic surroundings while pursuing base and bonus game wins.

This will surely blaze a trail in the marketplace, and one that will see other developers launch a huge swathe of VR games in the coming years.

Given the increasingly diverse, creative (and not to mention themed) nature of online slots, VR will also create a truly unique and enhanced experience for gamblers. After all, this technology and its associated headsets can replicate entire virtual worlds for players to inhabit, while also delivering sounds, sights and a full sensory experience that will be hard to resist. This principle can also be extended to the online gambling experience as a whole, with the SlotsMillion Casino already offering a full virtual platform that fully replicates a visit to a lavish, land-based establishment.

While there are boundless opportunities provided by VR headsets, it may be argued that Augmented Reality (AR) has even more applications in the online gambling world (particularly in the near-term). While VR and AR are often considered to be one and the same thing, there are subtle variations between these two concepts that underpin completely different gambling experiences for players.

While VR creates entire virtual worlds for players to explore, for example, AR instead delivers an enhanced version of reality, usually by integrating technology and three-dimensional elements into a corporeal setting. In simple terms, AR headsets (such as Microsoft’s much-vaunted HoloLens) will project authentic, 3D gaming scenarios into the black spaces of the real world, enabling you to play as though you’re sat in one of Vegas’ prime casino locations.

AR is particularly compatible with wearable tech outlets such as smartwatches, as the interfaces featured by these devices could easily project realistic images of virtual casino games. These devices would also enable players to interact by using their eyes and other gesture controls, and while no dedicated titles have been launched in this space there a number of mini-games that have seamlessly demonstrated the possibilities here.

Beyond Smartwatches – The Future for Wearable Tech

The issue with smartwatches is that they typically boast small and relatively compact displays, which may not be entirely conducive to sustained casino gameplay. In this respect, the wearable tech market may need to evolve further and develop new product concepts before it can truly represent the future of the online gambling industry, with so-called smart googles arguably the most likely innovation.

The development of such items suffered a setback with the failure of Google Glass, which was withdrawn by the social media giant after a series of highly publicised issues. From the exalted cost of around $1500 to design flaws and serious health and safety concerns, this high profile project was canned before it had ever really left the drawing board.

While Google’s project arguably failed to rampant over-ambition, other brands are embracing the concept of smart google in a more manageable and successful manner. Take the Imagination Factory, for example, which recently unveiled a compact device that could be attached to goggles to capture real-time data pertaining to speed, lap count and splits. Driven by Bluetooth and boasting wireless charging, this innovation highlights the potential of smart googles in the virtual casino realm.

The next stage is for developers to integrate this technology into goggles directly, before refining the concept to deliver 3D images and animations through the lenses. This is where Google previously fell down, as they were unable to create such hardware at an affordable cost or without incurring numerous design issues.

There’s no doubt that this technology will evolve to provide the ultimate in virtual gambling experiences, however, with AR at the heart of this incredible evolution.

Perhaps the real future of wearable technology lies in implanted chips and sensors that can be embedded under the skin, creating a permanent connection between the corporeal and the virtual worlds. While this may sound like a futuristic and entirely fanciful innovation of the highest order, we’re already seeing this concept take hold and it may well grow to dominate the future of various marketplace.

Some people are already sporting RFID (radio frequency ID) chips in their hands, for example, with these prototypes being tested to review their effectiveness and potential applications. These microscopic chips contain a host of unique data such as an individual’s blood type, while developers are hoping that this will ultimately enable users to pay for items with the mere swipe of their hand.

Clearly, this prototype technology also has the potential to revolutionise the iGaming sector, with such chips enabling players to execute bets and control games using real-time and authentic gestures. When combined with headsets or smart goggles that can replicate corporeal casino images and audio, you have a unique gambling experience that will change the industry beyond all recognition.

The Bottom Line – The Evolution of Tech and Gambling

As we can see, technology and gambling have always enjoyed a deceptively close relationship, even though this union has not always been a positive one. There’s no doubt that the nature of this partnership has changed over the course of the last 50 years, however, with technology now being used to enhance and shape the gambling sector rather than equip players with an unfair advantage against the house.

Much of this has to do with the sustained shift from bricks-and-mortar gambling to virtual gameplay, which has changed the role of technology from curious novelty to key driving force. So, while land-based establishments once feared technology and viewed it with innate suspicion, virtual operators are reliant on this to deliver authentic and progressive experiences to players.

The next frontier in this is evolution is embodied by wearable tech, which encompasses a host of innovations including VR, AR and RFID. As this technology continues to evolve and launches a diverse range of new devices that are specifically tailored for the iGaming market, this will surely become the definitive future of a marketplace that boasts an incredible scope for growth.