Bitcoin can be considered as a type of cryptocurrency. It was originated in 2009 following the housing market crash. Bitcoin is not a centralized method of transaction. It offers much lower transaction fees than any traditional online payments.
Any government authorities or banks do not issue Bitcoins. A large network of computers does all the transactions, and the details of every transaction happening will be visible to the users. There are no physical bitcoins; it appears as transactions or balances on a public ledger.
Bitcoin is different from fiat currency. It is created, distributed, stored, and traded with blockchain, a decentralized ledger system. It can be considered a collection of nodes or computers that can run bitcoin’s code and store its blockchain. Each blockchain will contain the collection of all the transactions.
The balances of bitcoin will be stored with the help of public and private keys. These keys can be considered a long chain of both numbers and letters, which are linked through the mathematical encryption algorithm. The public keys will be the address for the transactions or trading of the bitcoins.
What are bitcoin gambling or casinos?
Bitcoins are widely accepted around the world as a digital currency. This rising popularity of bitcoins as a digital currency type has made a new economy develop parallel to the existing money-based economy. This popularity also made a new platform for bitcoin gambling, gaming, lotteries, etc. through the bitcoin casinos. Many casinos accept this digital currency which is based on blockchain technology.
Some of the casinos only accept bitcoins as the means of payment, while others give bitcoin as an additional currency of the transaction. It is used as an additional currency for transactions other than traditional money like US dollars.
Many casinos are operating around the world that provides money based games and gambling in bitcoin currency. Even though these casinos are subjected to local laws, they are working in many places. These casinos allow players to bet or gamble on different kinds of games, including traditional gambling games, casino games like poker, spread betting, sports-related betting, online lotteries, etc.
Even though these casinos are illegal in places like the US, they have popularity since it will keep the player’s anonymity. Gaming involves unlimited daily transactions without any fees.
Some of the famous bitcoin casinos operating are
- SatoshiDice
- Bitzino
- Satoshibet
- StrikeSapphire
- BCLC
- io
The operation of bitcoin casinos
Bitcoin casinos work based on software, the key feature of every gambling business, which applies to bitcoin gambling too. The companies that can afford a large amount will invest in the development of this software. The lower companies will apply for the rental version, and they will customize the software by adding some additional features if they want.
The companies with a large user base will own much software, and they will develop their software. As a part of earning trust, many bitcoin casinos will discuss and share information regarding how the software work.
The development will help to run all the games without the intervention of humans. The software will become the table dealer in the case of all the players need to be human. The main disadvantage is that these bitcoin casinos fail to convince the users about the authenticity and fairness of the operations since everything is working based on digital software.
For most of the casinos, the gain in popularity is achieved by their uniqueness in the games and the peer to peer reference. Among the casino games, poker is very popular and often played. There will be many other interesting games too.
The reason for the popularity of bitcoin gambling
All the bitcoin transactions and even the founder of the bitcoin is considered to be anonymous. That is the main advantage of the bitcoin casinos. It will protect the players’ anonymity in many of the sectors where bitcoins have been used; the transactions or the procedures are often complicated and illegal. But using bitcoin in gambling is not like that. Because of this, bitcoin gambling is more welcomed.
The casinos that work based on the traditional currency will have some limitations regarding the transactions. But in bitcoin gambling, the transactions can be done unlimitedly and free daily. It does not involve any fees for the transactions. Another advantage is it can be accessed from anywhere globally and is easily available to a large number of players.
Apart from this, gambling with bitcoins involves real proof of solvency. In fiat-based casinos, they will provide an impressive jackpot but often fail to find the resources to pay it out. Bitcoin-based gambling is somewhat probably gaming technology. The players can relax since they know that after placing the bet, the game will be fair. But the thing to be noted that not every casino will provide this kind of assurance.
Most of the time, the games will be beyond the authorities’ control, so many of the games can be customized with the game’s flow. It will not happen in the case of the casino using traditional currencies. Since it is online, players all over the world can easily participate in the game. All these factors will contribute to the popularity of gambling based on bitcoins.
Legal issues of bitcoin gambling
The working of casinos and gambling based on bitcoins is considered illegal in many places like the USA. As a result of this, most of the legally known bitcoin casinos are working outside the US. And the players from different places will make transactions on these bitcoin sites anonymously.
In gambling using traditional currency, there will be information regarding the player and can identify them. But in the case of gambling using bitcoins, the player’s information will not be acquired. The players will often gamble anonymously. Even the age of the player will not be checked, questioning the fair business practices, making the authorities to control, regularize, and legalize the transactions. And it will be difficult to take any action when there is a problem. This lack of required information about the anonymity-based business will create a problem for law enforcement.
Conclusion
Even though bitcoins’ gambling possesses some legal issues, people are always interested in it because of the offers it is providing and the security of personal information. Most of the time, people prefer bitcoin-based gambling to traditional currency based gambling. Bitcoin transactions are easy and free from transaction fees. Since the transaction of bitcoin is completely digital, this can become a problem for audit and verification.
The regulation of bitcoin is also complicated at the global level. Because of that, some legal problems can be expected. Since there is an ethical issue to the cryptocurrency as a wholesome, challenges can be expected in this gambling also. The bitcoins face a rise in transactions since 2012. So the growth of gambling and more casinos based on bitcoins can be expected.
