Since the first wager was placed around 1993 online gambling has blown up in all directions. Today's online gambling industry is a multi billion dollar a year industry which is still growing at an incredibly fast rate. From online casinos to poker rooms and online bingo halls players have such a diverse range of products out there to engage.

Many people often ask me what the next big thing is in gaming. To be honest with you this is always the million dollar question What's Next, or What's Coming, What Should we Expect? These are all valid questions but it's difficult to really answer.

All we can do is really make educated predictions the future of the gaming industry. I personally feel that although mobile gaming is still kind of far off and the majority of the device displays are limited that this will be a big portion of the online gambling industry in the next 5 years. But if you're looking for the next real big thing you there's a good chance it will lie in skill based gaming. There are a few sites out there that I've come across in recent months that have build up skill based games where you compete against other players. From what I know some of the larger casino brands possibly 888.com will be integrating these types of games into their casinos.

Other then that all I can really see is advancements in the games and the quality of the games that are out there as technology advances with new hardware and new software that come about. You'll also see more branded games similar to the Lara Croft Tomb Raider game that Microgaming launched late last year (2004).