Author: Tom Thompson[toc]
Crypto gambling and regulations
The legality of gambling with digital cryptocurrencies is heavily dependent on where you are located in the world, the European Union has quickly established guidelines and lax rules around the crypto-related activity. With that said there are currently no comprehensive regulations around the topic of crypto gambling at the current time of writing this article.
Bitcoin Gambling is it legal?
The short answer is yes, since there are few to no rules and regulations around crypto gambling sites with digital currencies such as Bitcoin. The legality of playing on gambling sites may vary depending on where you are located.
- There are currently no specific laws or restrictions in regards to crypto gambling, it’s not officially allowed or prohibited. In short it’s currently allowed.
- Bitcoin and other digital currencies has gained a foothold and is here to stay. Crypto is still not acknowledged as a real currency (fiat). The rules that fiat-based casinos have often does not apply to BTC gambling websites.
- Despite this there are still some countries that strictly prohibits gambling and may have other regulations in regards to gambling that affects the crypto sector such as the UK and USA. In time governments may take stricter measures against Bitcoin gambling online.
Is Bitcoin gambling legal in the US?
Online gambling in the United States has long been prohibited by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act introduced in 2006, the impact of this act has been questionable at best with hundreds of off shore internet casinos accepting US players.
Crypto gambling sites are available for US players trough VPN and some sites even allows US players but with restrictions to the game library
Is Bitcoin gambling legal in the European Union (EU)
The answer is yes. The EU has a very liberal approach to online gambling with no regulations yet in place, and it’s not illegal at all. It’s just that you need to be aware of the rules and regulations regarding your own country/region.
Is Bitcoin gambling legal in the United Kingdom (UK)
The United Kingdom is one of the few countries where regulations are in place, the country accepts Bitcoin as a store of value and imposes several restrictions on Bitcoin gambling and bets place at online casinos.
With that said there are still anonymous crypto casino sites that does accept players from all over the world
What are the advantages?
There lots of advantages to Bitcoin on crypto gambling sites over fiat here are some of our favorites:
- Anonymous
- No banking fees or third party payment providers
- Secure
- Quick
- Decentralized currency that you have full control over
- Digital wallets
Licensing on crypto gambling websites
For a casino to be able to have merchant bank accounts and work with different payment and casino game providers a official license is necessary as a iGaming business . Not all casinos publicly announce or share if they hold a license or not but the most common license held by crypto casinos is a Curacao license.
Curacao is probably the most common license overall with literally thousands of casinos utilizing it. And they have accepted crypto as a valid payment method this does not only include Bitcoin but also all manners of different alt-coins that has become popular, this makes the license very attractive to casinos since it offers players additional payment methods beyond the regular fiat deposit methods.
Another noteworthy thing with casino websites working with Bitcoin is that payment and processing can all be performed in-house by the casino without any additional third party service providers, only the provider of their crypto payment infrastructure most casinos seem to use their custom systems for this, withdrawals and deposits are almost transferred instantly and Bitcoins move straight between the wallet of the casino and your own Bitcoin wallet. This in essence takes away the necessity to present a gaming license to any financial institutions.
How does crypto gambling on Bitcoin casinos work?
It’s essentially the same as a fiat casino except you use cryptocurrency instead of fiat currencies. To get started you first need to either own Bitcoin or any other popular cryptocurrency or buy it. If this is the case you can use a crypto exchange or a offline crypto wallet. We recommend using a cold wallet (offline wallet) for crypto transactions between you and the casino some exchanges has restricted payouts from online casinos.
The main advantage of choosing a crypto gambling site is anonymity and fast transactions, top crypto casinos tend to have the most advantageous bonuses and loyalty programs we recommend testing out different venues to find one that suits you.
In general Bitcoin casino sites tend to operate mostly like any other regular online casino with the main difference being that you can play with digital currencies, as mentioned above the bonuses tend to be larger and have better terms, on top of that additional rewards are often a built-in feature offering players cashback and rake-back among other fun features benefits the balance of a player. There are also multiple popular casinos that offers sports book and crypto betting.
Future of gambling with cryptocurrency
It’s no longer possible to ignore cryptocurrencies they are here to stay. Transaction speed, anonymity and privacy are just some of the advantages of different digital coins this is ideal for gambling. Online casino sites without support for cryptocurrencies are constantly loosing players to the sites that has chosen to support Bitcoin on their casinos.
The crypto gambling sector specifically is growing at a rapid rate with more gambling websites supporting cryptocurrency every day, with most even adding support for multiple different coins such as Ethereum, Doge and Litecoin among many other coins.
Legislation and rules for crypto and online gambling platform are still evolving this is also true in the casino industry in the next several years some form of crypto regulations is sure to come about. If you are gambling with cryptocurrency right now we recommend choosing trustworthy reviewed casinos with lots of positive press and always make sure to look at country restrictions to avoid unfortunate accidents.