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On this page
- There Are Still Relatively Few Bitcoin Gambling Sites
- While Bitcoin Is Fast, It’s Not the Fastest Crypto
- Bitcoin’s Value Can Fluctuate Wildly, So Be Prepared
- Bitcoin Will Save You Money, But It Isn’t Totally Free to Use
- Bitcoin Bonuses Are Often Bigger Than Regular Bonuses
- Bitcoin Is Easy to Use, But There Is a Learning Curve Involved
- Bitcoin Offers Anonymity, But It Can Be Traced
- Bitcoin Can Enable Restricted Players to Gamble Online
- Conclusion
As the cryptocurrency industry expands, bitcoin will expand with it, and more and more online casinos and other gambling sites are likely to start accepting it.
However, while betting is betting no matter what form of currency you use, there are certain peculiarities about betting with bitcoin that you should be aware of before embarking on this endeavor.
Here are the most important ones. Read them carefully and take the time to think about and understand them before you start playing with bitcoin.
There Are Still Relatively Few Bitcoin Gambling Sites
There are lots of sites in many different niches which accept payment by Bitcoin, online gambling included.
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However, the majority of the "big brands" that you see on TV or that people are generally aware of do not accept it yet. In fact, the majority of online gambling sites do not accept bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency,
This doesn't mean that there aren't reliable bitcoin gambling sites that are worthwhile and safe to use. Most of them have been reviewed and are profiled right here. It does mean, however, that these sites are fewer in number and less accessible than sites for using regular currency.
We are confident that the number of online gaming platforms accepting bitcoin will continue to grow over the next few years. This will happen as more and more platforms recognize the virtues of this groundbreaking cryptocurrency and the way it benefits many types of players. In our opinion, accepting Bitcoin is a no-brainer for online gaming platforms.
While Bitcoin Is Fast, It’s Not the Fastest Crypto
One of the best reasons to use Bitcoin to gamble online is how fast it is.
However, bitcoin is not the fastest cryptocurrency out there - far from it! Some other alternative coins, or altcoins, are significantly faster, including Litecoin (LTC), Dash (DASH), and Ripple (XRP).
The evolution of bitcoin is relentless. With ever-improving technology, it will likely soon become a much faster coin. For now, and for the foreseeable future, there are faster alternatives.
Keep this in mind when betting with crypto. If you are comfortable waiting a few hours when the network is busy, then bitcoin is perfect for betting. If you want your money immediately (within seconds or a few minutes at the most), then consider some other sites to gamble on.
Bitcoin’s Value Can Fluctuate Wildly, So Be Prepared
You're probably at least somewhat aware of how wildly the price of bitcoin can go up and down if you're considering using it to gamble.
Every cryptocurrency has this feature, so it's not a quality unique to bitcoin. However, because bitcoin's price is so high, it gets the most attention and drama when it does this. For example, there have been several times in its history when bitcoin has plummeted by double digits virtually overnight (and yes, I mean 10% to 15% or more in a single day). And then there have been a couple of times where it's had a more prolonged, extended sort of bear market where it's lost 70% or more of its value.
When playing with bitcoin, you should be prepared for wild price swings. If you win big and then a few days later the price drops by 10% and you haven't converted your coins into your local currency or spent them, you basically have two options: take the loss or hope the price rebounds and the value of your coins goes back up. However, one of the nice things about using bitcoin for gambling is that even if the price drops significantly after you win, you may still come out far ahead compared to if you had won in a more conventional currency.
Of course, this is reciprocal. The value of bitcoin can also skyrocket in a very short period of time. Between September and December 2017, it jumped from a value of just over $900 to a price just shy of $20,000. This, of course, is a textbook example of a speculative bubble. By the end of 2018, the value of bitcoin was pegged at just over $3,000. If you had played the long game in 2017 and waited until the end of the year to cash out, you would have made a 2,200% profit.
Bitcoin Will Save You Money, But It Isn’t Totally Free to Use
The reason many online gamblers are switching to using Bitcoin has to do with the fact that it is a payment method that is virtually free of any fees. Compare this to using your average web wallet, such as PayPal, which is notorious for taking a not-insignificant cut of all "cashier" transactions. Even for transactions involving thousands of dollars, the average Bitcoin fee is somewhere in the range of a few pennies.
Unlike Visa, Mastercard, or Neteller, bitcoin is not a corporation. It is a decentralized network, and its transactions are verified - "mined" - by people who are paid a nominal fee for their work. Bitcoin's transaction fees have come down significantly over time, but they are not directly controlled by Bitcoin's developers or network operators. Fees are a function of supply and demand; in this case, the supply of all the bitcoin that will ever exist and the demand from people who want to transact with bitcoin.
Examine how bitcoin fees have fluctuated over time. During one of the busiest times in late 2017, when the bitcoin blockchain wasn't quite ready to handle the high volume of transactions, fees skyrocketed. But that's no longer the case. Now, fees are virtually nonexistent, and as the technology behind Bitcoin continues to improve, it will become so cheap that we can all make payments without having to think about the cost.
Therefore, when it comes to deposits and withdrawals, using Bitcoin can save you money - if you choose a casino where, unlike BetOnline, the only fees you pay are for the Bitcoin itself and not for withdrawing it. That's not to say that Bitcoin is a free way to gamble.
If you do not have a friend or trusted acquaintance who owns bitcoin and is willing to sell you some, you will need to purchase it from a cryptocurrency exchange, which allows you to exchange fiat currencies for cryptocurrencies. There are a growing number of these exchanges, but at least one will charge a 3% fee for the transaction.
Think of this as the "startup cost" of using bitcoin for online gambling. Once you set up your Bitcoin system, you can easily transfer funds between your wallet and the betting site. If you're a regular bettor, the initial investment in this system will pay for itself hundreds of times over, and even more if you happen to win a big jackpot. All of this makes using bitcoin for online gambling a more financially sound decision.
Because of these upfront costs, bitcoin is probably a better choice for players looking to deposit amounts in the hundreds or thousands of dollars. It doesn't really make sense to buy $20 of bitcoin to use for gambling, to be honest.
When it comes to purchasing bitcoin, remember that some banks have prohibited the use of their credit cards to purchase cryptocurrencies. If you intend to use credit to buy bitcoin, you must make sure that your bank allows such transactions.
Bitcoin Bonuses Are Often Bigger Than Regular Bonuses
Knowing that the cryptos they mint today are likely to be worth much more in the future, they take the risk that comes with paying out these larger bonuses. It makes business sense as a long-term play and is a good deal for the players/customers, so it is a win-win situation.
However, the above statement does not mean that you should not take your time to evaluate the bitcoin bonuses being offered. Remember, just because a bonus is bigger does not mean it is better. Always evaluate the terms and conditions of the bonus before accepting it.
Beware of gambling sites that play the "too good to be true" game. If a bonus is unusually large, really investigate. It could be a sign of a site that will cheat you.
Bitcoin Is Easy to Use, But There Is a Learning Curve Involved
Undoubtedly, the biggest hurdle that keeps most people from betting with bitcoin is the amount of work it takes to understand how to use it. This is a real shame, because if these individuals persevere and switch to BTC gambling, they will most certainly be happy with their decision.
However, like all new technologies that you have learned to use and master - like the Internet, for example - bitcoin is something that you can become very good at in a very short period of time. In fact, many of its champions find it far easier to use than banking systems and applications like PayPal.
Wallet addresses are the basic thing to understand bitcoin with. They are long and not very pretty. But for the sake of this section, I will do my best to make them pretty. So what are wallet addresses? Basically, they are the bitcoin analog of bank account numbers.
For this reason, copying and pasting bitcoin addresses is something that most people find fairly easy to do. Of course, this eliminates a whole category of potential errors - the ones we make when we're typing long strings of random characters and trying to make sure that the characters we're using actually represent a valid address.
The message is clear: using bitcoin for online gambling requires some education. Some people are put off by this, while others see it as an opportunity to expand their horizons. The good news is that you can choose how you look at it.
Bitcoin Offers Anonymity, But It Can Be Traced
For a long time, people who used bitcoin were under the impression that it was completely untraceable. As a result, many decided to use it to commit bad acts and crimes, certain that they would be safe from ever being caught because of the anonymity they thought bitcoin made them.
Many of those same people have since learned that if you do something worthy of being investigated by top law enforcement agencies, bitcoin can be, and often is, traced. But most of us, as we go about our daily lives, don't interact with law enforcement in any way. And for all intents and purposes, those of us who live in the bitcoin world just hang out in La La Land, go about our business, and don't make too much noise.
The initial purchase of bitcoin is likely to be tied to your identity in some way, if you got it through a centralized exchange. But after that, the only time bitcoin is linked back to you is when you use it to interact with the traditional financial system or send it to a place that does. In other words, bitcoin is pseudonymous until you try to do something with it that requires a traditional financial system, at which point it becomes much more dangerous.
You can then transfer them from your exchange address to a mobile wallet that no one knows you have. What you do with them from there is up to you.
Although bitcoin provides a degree of privacy, always remember that many people have thought of it as a way to be lawless. Pay your taxes on what you win (if any). Don't make the mistake of thinking you can break the law and get away with it using bitcoin in countries like mine where gambling is strictly illegal.
Bitcoin Can Enable Restricted Players to Gamble Online
Since the UIGEA was passed in 2006, almost all gambling sites have banned US players from using it. That changed with bitcoin, and now the US player base has become not only the main driver of this pseudo-legal currency, but also one of the main forces pushing for its use in the online gambling sector.
The US is one of those strange gray areas where it's not strictly illegal to play online poker, but it is illegal for banks to help poker players deposit or withdraw money from poker sites. Because bitcoin is decentralized and requires no permission from any institution, network, or middleman, US poker players have quickly realized that the cryptocurrency is a convenient workaround to the laws that otherwise restrict access to most online poker sites.
While this workaround may be a relief to frustrated US players, it comes with a warning - scammers thrive in the bitcoin gambling space, and if you deposit from a country where you're not supposed to gamble online, you have no legal recourse. This makes it even more important than usual to find a reputable bitcoin gambling site.
Conclusion
There are several factors to consider before you start betting with bitcoin on the Internet. Pros and cons come with the territory; however, I would argue that the benefits far outweigh any possible negatives.
If you decide to go ahead, choose a secure bitcoin exchange for your first purchase. Then read our reviews to find a reliable bitcoin gambling site. Also, learn the ins and outs of sending and receiving Bitcoins. It may seem like a lot to take in at first, but these tips could save you a lot of trouble down the road.
We hope you have enjoyed learning about the various aspects that are important to understand when betting with bitcoin. With all this said and done, the only remaining question is: will you take the plunge and actually do it?