Instant play software is the dominant one today at online casinos. All online casinos offer this platform on desktops. This was not always the case. In fact online casinos started out with the download software. Instant play software was a later development and underwent several changes to reach its present status. This article traces the origin of instant play software and takes players through its exciting journey.

Instant play software was developed to overcome certain inherent disadvantages of the download software. The biggest of these was that download software was only compatible with Windows, keeping players on Mac and other operating systems out of online gaming. Instant play is compatible with all computer operating systems. As the portfolio of games became larger, the file size of the download software also became larger. Players began to consume enormous storage space on their computers, especially those that wagered at many online casinos. Instant play software does not use any hard disk storage.

Instant play software became possible because of Flash technology that had been developed by Adobe. Players needed to download the Adobe Flash Player in order to run this software. This technology allowed online casino software providers to process visual, audio and textual information at high speeds within the browsers of the computers. Players have to access the web site of the online casino and select the game they want to play. The game will open in the browser of their computer and can be fully played there.

Initially there were issues with instant play online casino software. The Internet speeds were not fast enough to run complex video slots perfectly. Players did face problems like getting disconnected or frames freezing or excessive buffering. To some extent the problems were alleviated as Internet speeds increased. But the big development took place when instant play software switched from Flash to HTML5. HTML5 could carry out all the processing required without dependence on external plug-ins like Flash. With HTML5 software developers could go all out on rich graphics and audio and on animations as well. The quality difference between download and instant play software completely disappeared.

Download software was a single software provider platform. But Instant play software is able to integrate with games of a number of different software providers. Many online casinos have already adopted this practice and some others are moving towards it. There is a secondary advantage of using HTML5, which is is its cross-platform compatibility. Now software providers do not have to create games separately for instant play desktops and for mobile devices. The cost of development of games has reduced considerably as a result.