Are Bitcoin Casinos Already the Future of Online Gaming?
The 21st century has witnessed the introduction of more technological innovations. One of those which cannot be ignored is the introduction of cryptocurrency. This is due to the manner in which it has shaped how financial transactions can be conducted.
In the Gambling industry, cryptocurrency has been accepted with open arms. This is not surprising due to the difficulty which online gamblers faced when making transactions using fiat currency. Prior to the introduction of cryptocurrency, all online transactions were carried out with the use of fiat currency.
Hence, this posed a problem in terms of the speed, privacy, and security of transactions.
Top 5 Bitcoin Casinos For 2022
Problems of Fiat Transactions
Fiat transactions are not instantaneous. Some such as Credit cards (Visa, MasterCard) can take reasonably short periods of time. This could be instant or up to two days.
However, others can take days to a week to get processed. Such examples of these include bank transfers. Bank transfers take days to be completed, whether when making deposits or withdrawals.
Bitcoin Casino
Bitcoin Casinos refer to online casinos that allow cryptocurrency transactions as amongst their payment methods. With Bitcoin Casinos, online gamers can make payments or withdrawals using Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency. With the speed with which Bitcoin casinos have been accepted, one could conclude that these casinos are the future of online gaming.
Types of Bitcoin Casinos
Bitcoin casinos are of two types. They include:
Crypto only Casinos
These are those Casinos that only allow for cryptocurrency payments. With these casinos, you cannot play using Indian Rupees. They only accept crypto payments and nothing else.
It is important to be careful on such casino sites as some are not registered with renowned regulatory agencies. Most of such casinos are new. Some of them include:
- mBit Casino
- Bitcasino.io
Hybrid Casinos
These are the operators who accept crypto and still permit fiat payments. These are more reliable as they are well-known sites that simply included cryptocurrency as an option of payment.
These are the ones who are registered with the proper licensing agencies. Some of these casinos include the following:
- Bitstarz
- Casino Rocket
Why Have Bitcoin Casinos Been Quickly Accepted?
Payment via Bitcoin has brought with it some major relevant factors in online gambling. These include the following:
- Privacy and Anonymity
- Speed
- Security
- Ease of international transactions
Privacy and Anonymity
Bitcoin Casinos are really private. When using a Bitcoin casino, the transactions are strictly between two parties, that is the user and the casino.
This is contrary to how fiat online casinos work. Users must fill in their financial details to make deposits or to carry out withdrawals. Hence, when transacting on them, banks were also involved in these transactions, and sometimes these financial institutions even prohibited some of these transactions.
But Bitcoin Casinos have solved this issue. With their introduction, online gamers can now bypass these banks. This is particularly helpful for gamblers who reside in countries that have strict online gambling laws. With Bitcoin Casinos, such gamblers can easily register on offshore sites and transact with their cryptocurrency accounts.
Also, since the personal details of users are not provided, transactions are more anonymous than ever before. Though, Bitcoin casinos operating with licenses from regulatory authorities such as the Malta Gaming Authority, the Government of Curacao has to comply with certain regulations. Such include the Know-Your-Customer requirements and the Anti-Money Laundering regulations.
Speed
Bitcoin Casinos have also brought alongside them speed. With cryptocurrency, transactions are processed in an instant. This is quite different from what fiat currency offered when users had to wait for up to days before transactions – especially when trying to complete withdrawals.
Security
Previously, carrying out fiat transactions required details of users such as:
- Name
- Bank account
- Card details
- Other personal and financial details.
This put a lot of users at risk because fiat casinos could be subjected to attacks by online hackers. And in such circumstances, the personal information of users is jeopardized.
However, Bitcoin casinos helped to reduce such occurrences of attacks. This is because all that is required when using them is the Wallet address. Hence, there is security of users’ data with Bitcoin casinos.
International transactions
One main concern of fiat online casinos is the currency accepted. With fiat online sites, users had to ensure the site accepted currency such as Indian Rupees. The other option was to convert local currency to the currency accepted on the site.
This sort of arrangement was quite stressful. But it is another positive which Bitcoin brought with it. With Bitcoin casinos, users simply need to ensure that the operator accepts the coin they wish to wager with.
For instance, most cryptocurrency casinos offer a large variety of coins ranging from Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin amongst many others. So, as a customer, if you wish to gamble using Ethereum, this can be simply done with such an online site that accepts it.
Disadvantages
Although Bitcoin casinos come with all of these positives, they have some downsides. For instance:
Money laundering
Due to the anonymity of users on Bitcoin casinos, there is a high possibility of fraudulent individuals attempting to use them for money-laundering activities. This is particularly for those modern crypto-only sites that are not properly licensed.
Irreversible transactions
Transactions on these sites require the use of addresses. Where a wrong address is filled when trying to make a withdrawal, such an error cannot be rectified. Hence, users must exercise extra care when filling in their crypto addresses.
Volatility
Naturally, Cryptocurrencies are volatile. This means they do not have a stable value and tend to increase and decrease in value. Therefore, it is possible that when you wager, the value is high and it could be lower by the time you wish to withdraw.
Conclusion
More online casinos are accepting cryptocurrency payments now. The benefits also outweigh the few disadvantages. Therefore, with time, it is predicted that the majority of online gamblers will incline to wager at casino games using crypto.