For many online casinos, payments are turning digital as the industry races to accept cryptocurrency. There has been a momentous shift in online casino technology and business with the emergence of various blockchains, cryptocurrencies, and tokens. Many casinos with the highest RTP (return-to-player) rates as seen at Betfree now accept cryptocurrencies, making them even more attractive. In Canada and many other countries, payments in cryptocurrency are also ubiquitous. After all, the vast majority of crypto payments are fast, convenient, and (most importantly) secure.
In Canadian casinos, transactions can be completed immediately without authorization from a centralized authority. Additionally, there is no requirement to submit personal information when transacting with cryptocurrency. In the US, the rules are trickier. Most states prevent all forms of online gambling, but others, such as Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, have online gambling services that are ever-expanding their crypto services.
Sidestepping Those Pesky Regulations
The cryptocurrency boom has made gambling online more accessible than ever before. Under current US state regulations where it’s legal to gamble online, you must deposit money directly from a bank account or debit card, then register with your government ID with the casino. Some websites, such as the World Series of Poker (WSOP), only allow cash-outs in person and only at specific locations in certain cities.
Bitcoin bypasses all these requirements. For example, in order to gamble with bitcoin, you would transfer some from your private wallet to the website wallet, and then it’s ready to use for placing bets or whatever strikes your fancy. When you’re done, transfer what you’ve won (or what’s left, if anything) back to your private wallet. No government ID is needed. No 3rd party is keeping tabs on the transaction. No need to drive to a financial institution to collect your winnings. It’s a peer-to-peer transfer only.
One way of converting Bitcoin to fiat cash is by using a Bitcoin ATM, and they are spreading like wildfire.
The Benefit of Anonymity for Users
Bitcoin allows for near-total anonymity for those players who prefer to stay private while gambling with their money. Most websites allow you to choose a username, or they assign one for you at random. In many cases, there is no requirement to provide online crypto casinos with any personal identification whatsoever. All you need is an e-mail address, password, and username.
There is a publicly viewable blockchain for many cryptocurrencies that records all transactions ever made. However, the addresses shown in these transactions are mostly anonymous. Sort of like watching the postal service deliver mail to addressed houses, but you’d never know who lives at each address.
Significantly Less Hassle for Crypto Casinos
Many crypto transfers are very brief compared to fiat money transfers, usually between seconds to hours, with a few minutes being a rough average. This allows crypto casinos to commit many more transactions per day, with the ease of use of cryptocurrency playing a significant role. Their back-end infrastructure for handling cryptocurrency can afford to be relatively simple (and therefore inexpensive to maintain) instead of the legal and regulation-riddled mess of bank transfers, fiat money, credit card fees, and a legion of other headaches. For them, switching to cryptocurrency payments is a no-brainer.
