Five years ago,it appeared as though virtual and augmented realities were fanciful concepts that were potential more than a decade away from the consumer mainstream. The pace of technological advancement has never been more pronounced, however, meaning that 2016 is set to be the year of virtual reality (VR) and mark an epoch of time when it becomes a truly accessible feature.

This is particularly true in the gaming market, where the marriage between VR and existing platforms is one made in heaven. To understand this, you need only look at the increasingly popular and lucrative online gaming market, where the stats and facts about online bingo have become more and more impressive. The introduction of VR into this mix will create an even greater proposition, helping to create a genuine meld between virtual and corporeal gaming.

We have already seen online casino gaming become increasingly authentic in the last decade, with developers having recently created more realistically paced experiences while improving the quality of immersive interaction with dealers (and even fellow players). With VR and augmented reality this can be taken on to a new and unprecedented level, as both fictional and real three-dimensional casino environments created from the comfort of players’ living rooms.

This would also add a new and exciting dimension to real-time tournament play, with players able to enter immersive competitions as they are held across the globe (without the need to travel or compromise on the overall experience). In turn, this would make online casino and bingo gaming even more popular among professionals, while also tempting an older generation of players into the fold.

So while bricks and mortar bingo halls and casinos have enjoyed a renaissance in recent times, there popularization of VR could signal the beginning of the end for this traditional gaming method.