Cryptocurrencies are flourishing like never before, and every day, more and more governments and other authorities are starting to take them seriously. The currencies are slowly, but surely spreading to all corners of society – and recently, they’ve caused a shift in the gambling industry as well.
With the rise of the so-called crypto casinos, gamblers can now make bets and game the night away using only crypto as payment. While this presents a host of new opportunities, it also raises many questions about safety, regulations and rules.
Below, we’ll go through some of these and explain the new casino concept to you.
What are crypto casinos?
First and foremost, let’s start by defining what exactly it is that sets crypto casinos apart from the ones you might be familiar with.
It’s actually fairly simple:
At a traditional casino game, all bets are fiat money and made via traditional payment methods such as credit cards – transactions that come with many restrictions and fees, and of course, show up on bank statements.
A crypto casino or crypto gambling, on the other hand, only uses cryptocurrencies. Simply, all bets and winnings are handled in crypto, and importantly, offers a more anonymous gambling experience compared to legacy casinos. In some cases, it can even be done offering up no personal information besides an email address.
Even though the concept is fairly new, more and more crypto casinos are emerging each day. Sites like cryptocasinomaster.com offer guides that’ll help you find a casino that accepts your currency of choice and ticks all your gaming boxes – so make sure to use them before placing your first bet.
Crypto casinos pros and cons
Pro: Bank independence, public ledgers & anonymity
An obvious advantage of crypto gambling and using cryptocurrencies in general is that you won’t be dealing with any banks and their systems and rules. With cryptocurrency, there’ll be no high transaction fees, no frozen accounts and no blocked transactions. And, as previously mentioned, gambling using crypto won’t show up on your bank statements – meaning you’re completely free to make your transactions anonymously.
This separation from the banking system also means that there are no international barriers that cryptocurrencies cannot cross. Furthermore, since the blockchain is a public ledger, you’ll have no trouble proving that a payment has been made. And only the amount transferred is visible, maintaining complete anonymity.
Cons: Risk of addiction & lost transactions
The possibility of total anonymity when crypto gambling can be considered both a pro and a con, depending on who you are.
In an age where privacy is hard to come by with increased surveillance everywhere, getting to remain anonymous is, of course, a nice change of pace. But for people with addictive personality types, getting into crypto gambling is risky business – and for recovering gambling addicts, learning about crypto casinos can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
For regular casinos, there are well-established safety measures in place, e.g. allowing addicts to ban themselves from casinos. But since crypto casinos require no identification, a self-exclusion in many cases only means that the gambler has to create a new account to continue betting.
Conclusion
Besides this, the lack of authority controlling the blockchain also comes with certain risks. If you encounter problems during a transaction, no customer service can really do much to help you, and stolen funds are basically untraceable.
You should also take extra care to double-check the validity of your crypto casino of choice. If they’re a scam, nothing can be done to get the money you’ve paid them back. And lastly, the volatility of cryptocurrencies themselves should also be taken into account.