I’ve spent last night checking out online casinos as an exercise for our consumer team.

Speed has form in the sector: the Business Communications team works for gaming technology provider Inspired Gaming and in the past the Consumer and Corporate teams have worked for a stack of online poker sites.

I’ve a personal interest as well, driven by a bunch of university mates that meet up socially to play at casinos in London and occasionally at other locations up and down the country.

What we won’t be doing is heading online anytime soon. My evening of research has been a disappointing experience.

I played in the online casinos on Betfair, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power and William Hill.

There is little to differentiate one site from another. And while the game play is realistic, the games (poker, roulette, blackjack etc) are all similar and the casino experience is a dull constant.

In fact none the sites I visited capture anything close to the atmosphere of a real casino. And none have embraced the social web.

Playing at an online casino is a lonely experience. Surely a bloke stuck at home for the evening on his own deserves more?

It’s no surprise that gaming brands with little to differentiate one from another are using Google Adwords to outbid each other for traffic and are tempting new users with cash incentives.

Here’s a market ripe for innovation.