Bitcoin is Eating the Entire Online Gambling Industry

 

Bitcoin has been making quite a ripple in the gambling industry over these past two or three years. For those not in the know Bitcoin is at time of writing the world’s leading ‘crypto-currency’ – an entirely independent form of exchange that is designed to be utterly untraceable. Much like any other currency it can be bought and sold via exchanges and is stored in an online Bitcoin wallet – which only the owner will have the key to access. As far as online transactions go it’s without question the most secure, however Bitcoin does have a tendency to fluctuate wildly in value – although it has settled down more in recent months.

So what is it that makes Bitcoin so popular with online gambling? There’s an increasing number of online casinos that are designed specifically for use with Bitcoin. Also many of the leading casinos are integrating Bitcoin as an approved currency – for example Red Flush Online Casino look set to announce full Bitcoin compatibility in the very near future. This means that players wishing to keep their spending to themselves while they play slot machines available at Red Flush casino can do so with total financial anonymity.

1) Bitcoin Is A Seamless Online Currency

One of the most commonly cited irritants raised by many online gamblers is that it can often take two or three business days in order for withdrawn funds to land in the players bank accounts. It may seem odd that this is still the case – after all most deposits are carried out instantly – but casinos always claim that it’s because of the banks and credit card companies slow processing times.

Bitcoin on the other hand is designed to be a totally electronic currency. Rather than moving money between accounts/banks it’s a shared currency that is the same for every user. In a nutshell this streamlines the entire process and allows for transactions to be performed much quicker than the industry standard. For the first time user Bitcoin can sometimes seem a little daunting, but in any practical sense it is actually a much more efficient means of online currency for online transactions.

2) Total Anonymity

The anonymous nature of Bitcoin tends to often make people a little agitated – after all not everyone has any cause to hide their financial behavior. Yet in a world that is increasingly being monitored whether we like it or not, Bitcoin does offer a means of being able to gamble anonymously thanks to it’s peer-to-peer design.

One particular use this has for online gambling is that when allied with a VPN, Bitcoin can help people from jurisdictions with a less enlightened attitude towards gambling to participate in international gaming. This is not necessarily legal but it does mean that monies used to gamble as well as winnings can be kept completely anonymous. Again this is a legal grey area – but it’s certainly one of the driving reasons behind why Bitcoin has been becoming so popular with online gambling.

3) Better Security

No matter how many precautions one takes there’s always going to be the risk of conventional bank accounts being hacked or compromised. Few industries take online security as seriously as online casinos, and to date there hasn’t been a major case of a leading casino being compromised (fingers crossed). However using Bitcoin adds an extra layer of security to all transactions.

Say for example a casino is hacked and the crooks manage to extract all the banking details held on the customer database. Obviously credit card information and bank account details could be a gold mine, however with Bitcoin the best they’ll manage to steal is just the encrypted key code. Without being activated from the other end (the account owner) this code is utterly useless. Few criminals will bother to try and exploit a Bitcoin account when they have the alternative of much softer traditional banking information instead.

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