Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality have become increasingly commonplace in various fields, particularly video games, but Robert Rice, founder of Transmira and developer of Omniscape, believes that this technology can provide a major boost to the casino industry.

Rice’s Omniscape product creates a ‘Metaverse’ where users can engage with 3D spaces and smart cities – including virtual casinos – all with a connection back to the real world.

Discussing his views and objectives with Becky Liggero Fontana of CoinGeek on a recent edition of Hashing it Out, Rice argued that VR and AR provides a unique opportunity for casinos to better engage with customers via digital verticals.

He explained: “Really at this point, casinos need to get a creative guy and empower them with a budget and say ‘go and do something amazing to make us more money’, and then they need to be going headfirst into metaverse stuff because honestly, you know it’s one thing if you go to Second Life and say, ‘we have a little building over here for our casino’, 

“That’s cool but you’re so limited, and you’re not really getting the full thing here – you really should be doing your own digital twin Metaverse for your casino.”

Continuing, he explained how casinos can utilise these technologies as a means to engage with new demographics, saying: “If casinos were smart, they should be really engaging the younger people now with the higher end tech because ultimately they’re going to retire out their own user base if they don’t.”

He also detailed how the use of Augmented Reality and geo-location can enable casinos to create ‘brandable and iconic’ content such as 3D poker chips or 3D Diamonds, which can be dropped at competitor casinos, or can be tailored to target customers in certain jurisdictions where an operator is interested in expansion.

“I think that VR, again for casinos or those types of experiences, adds on a whole nother layer of experience and immersion and funness, but it doesn’t fundamentally change with that experience that is,” he remarked.

“I’m still moving a 3D guy around and playing games, so I think that the smart people kind of understand this and make an amazing experience, and then they make it better with VR.”

Source – CoinGeek YouTube Channel