Bitcoin Forum

I have watched a lot of bitcoin gambling sites come and go.

The first I was aware of was satoshi dice. An awesome site that allowed you to gamble right on the blockchain (which was discouraged by a lot of people in the community).

At some point in time, satoshi dice stopped allowing US Players (I'm sure it can be circumvented with a VPN).

The government effectively scared them away from their completely legitimate business.

Then there was another site where you could bet on the outcome of any event. Anyone could create a bet and anyone could bet on it.

It's great to have the ability to win a bet because you were right. I'd love to bet against anyone that bitcoin will again surpass it's ATH in the following 5 years especially during today's crashing CryptoCurrency market.

That site too, disappeared and it would further be impossible to legally run in the US, or extremely difficult.


And yet the government backed, sponsored and advertised gambling has a much larger scale, and it's much more predatory.

Government backed gambling is also morally bankrupt, as its advertised as a charity, but the money gets shuffled around and effectively no new money goes to the supported cause.

Here is an excellent starter video on the topic of the lottery in the US: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PK-netuhHA (I don't agree with all of John Oliver's points, but you'll get an idea).

And there are infinite more cases of people addicted to the lottery, notably, Elliot Rodger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrGrp4ZYrjg

What you say is true, but when has that ever stopped the government, or any industry for that matter? Fast food, alcohol, video games, (in some countries) smoking, are all advertised in a predatory way. The organizations behind these products do not care at all about individuals, their health, or potential financial problems. All they care about is getting your to part with your money.

Yes, but the problem is that the government is sponsoring it. We have to hold the government to a higher standard because it is supposed to represent the interests of the people.

Private corporations are supposed to have a fiduciary obligation to their shareholders and their job is to carefully walk the line between what is allowed and not allowed.

The government is supposed to be painting that line, so when they create and advertise their gambling products they get a lot more leeway.

It's like John Oliver said towards the end of his segment from 2014. (watch 20 seconds from the timestamp) https://youtu.be/9PK-netuhHA?t=13m53s .

I think some of the fiat casinos based in the US like Bovada and 5Dimes have started to legally accept Bitcoin as they are regulated by the goverment and pay taxes. Obvioulsy most of the online crypto sportsbooks and casinos are not regulated, and hence have stopped accepting players from the USA that may cause legal problems to their business. I don't play the lottery so can't comment on that.

I agree with you in principle, but if you think the government represents the interests of the people over the interests of themselves, you're kidding yourself.

I couldn't agree more with you on the standards a government should hold and encouraging gambling regardless of whether its fiat casinos or crypto should not be supported - that's my opinion, anyways.

None of them are regulated. Bovada is owned by Bodog and Bodog was under Federal indictment (https://business.financialpost.com/news/canadian-bodog-backers-indicted-in-u-s) for 5 years... then bitcoin was added into their site and Bodog settled with the DOJ for pennies last year, the owners obviously made it clear they weren't coming to the US to hear what their court decides. Whether there is a law in the US that the gambling sites are breaking has always been debated, even when bodog was under indictment, they appeared to just want to slander them in the press and get a large settlement (in many people's opinion).

UIGEA was slipped into an unrelated bill in 2006 and is legislation that made it illegal for banks to provide money to gambling sites. Then the gambling sites got smart lawyers to tell them how to get around those laws. What is and isn't legal is completely up to whoever you ask, except in states like Washington and New York, there is state legislation prohibiting online gambling.

THEN you have Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire land based casino owner, funding politicians to block online gambling bills.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2013/11/22/sheldon-adelson-says-he-is-willing-to-spend-whatever-it-takes-to-stop-online-gambling/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/georgeleef/2017/11/16/online-gambling-none-of-washingtons-business-but-its-enemies-dont-care/

He just gave another $30 million to repblicans https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/07/sheldon-adelson-donates-30-million-for-house-republicans/

With crypto gambling sites, it is most likely that someone from US government makes an inquiry that scares the hell out of the teams lawyers and they just go with "block that country" as it is easier than fighting what the legality is.

What US Players NEED from a Crypto Gambling Site

One of the crypto gambling sites will have to be like pokerstars was back in 2006-2012. When UIGEA was passed in 2006, they paid expensive lawyers to tell them how to continue accepting US poker players and took over the whole industry. They also made sure players knew they would NOT lose their money depositing on pokerstars with credit cards from the US (this was new back then remember), through amazing customer service and consistent payments to players.

A new group now owns PokerStars and they are not the type to fight whether US laws are correct. Anyone in crypto that can show players they are trustworthy with cash outs and customer support is amazing (meaning YEARS of history, not months) will take over in the crypto gambling space. There is nobody standing out as AMAZING currently but where there is profit there will always be a few attempting.

 

What the op has highlighted is indeed true and is a ongoing practice since decades, while he's chosen to highlight gambling industry, if one was to lift the corporate veil they'll easily see that's it's a common practice found in all industries, governments needs funds for development, to campaign for themselves and at times they do it cause their predecessors indulged in it.

I would not consider this cause as worth fighting for, as the Government will first choose to think about itself, it's incoming Money, they will not be in favour of equality for all, in this particular case the gambling industry, as we'll know gambling is a good source of income for the owner and governments.

Government backed/regulated gambling has its own benefits. In my country, gambling is completely banned if its not a government regulated game. The rates are lower than the rest of the world and you usually have to pick 3 games to bet on but the good thing is, you know you'll get your money if you win. That's why they make it incredibly hard for you to win.

When you play on an overseas casino you can't really sue them if they decide to rob you. Maybe you can but hiring an international lawyer to save a few thousand bucks is not going to worth it. That's how they get away with it. Good thing with them is, you can bet on almost anything and the rates are way higher.

So it is important to choose a casino with a very good reputation & history.

US government is known for playing double faced games and Trump government has mastered in it! In the last G20 summit, the USA government has released a paper praising the cryptos and showing the positive side of cryptos. Everyone thought that they are going to legalize it, but what they did is banned ICOs. It is a great example of double faced game played by US government.

Online casinos probably throwing challenge to the government backed casinos and their revenues were getting affected. That is the reason they decided to shut those down. Such kind of practice is pretty old and true for every sector, not just gambling! What should have been done through healthy competition, is being done through the enforcement agencies. That's what the flaws of the centralized system. I do agree with OP's statement here!

If anyone is genuinely expecting anything resembling logic or sense from the Trump administration, they are going to be waiting a long, long time.

Yes, the US government are knew for their double faced games but the US government are not the only government that does this  kind of things because every government does things for their own selfish reason whenever they see something as a threat to their earning, position or power. However, they didn't ban ICOs but trying to control it and this was the exact thing they want to do with online crypto gambling site.

I would disagree. Maybe that holds for some centralized gambling providers in crypto space, but it does definitely not hold for smart contracts based gambling where source code is open for everyone. Regardless of that, smart-contract-based casinos are the future of gambling anyway.

With out smart contract also you can find the many decentralized gambling sites in online buddy. If you search around the forum you can find many trustable gambling sites running more than 5 years and above bro. Please check those kind of legit gambling site and play as you wish.

Regulations from the government not only relay on the ICO it is affects the crypto gambling sites as well. Still they cannot be able to touch the gambling with decentralized medium dude. Ignore centralized site and stick with decentralized gambling sites.

Since crypto gambling still new industry and the government still not find any "dangerous" situation that similar like ordinary gambling.
Of course , government regulation keep improve and keep up to date since the time goes on and on so I'm sure that regulation will gone stricter !
It's normal thing as long as it's for both side behalf !

You make some good points but you are operating under the premise that governments want the best for the people and that has not been true for a long time, that is the way most governments start but after some time the governments only care about one thing, their own preservation.

This is the main reason of why there is so much opposition against bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, if they were honest they will understand that fiat money has been a complete failure and that we need a new system, maybe one based on gold or one based on bitcoin to guarantee that they do not screw up the economy again, but are we seeing that? Of course not, they are seeing that bitcoin is a threat to their interests and they want to ban it or at least to regulate it.

Well, in my own point of view, any corporation/sector/business that is completely backed by the government reeks of corruption and is more immoral in every sense than any cryptogambling site out there that promotes anonymity. The only purpose of these government-backed corporations, be it in gambling or in any other sector of the community, is to take advantage of its own people for the benefit of those officials who are doing nothing and just make their bellies much bigger than it was before. They will prey on every opportunity just to get more money through corruption and underhanded activities.  >:(

The issue of gambling is a one sensitive one that catch the attention of any serious government and not the US alone especially those that have legalised the trade. That the money advertised under the guise or charity then channelled through other route are mere conjectures except there is a valid evidence to support that. The gambling industry is large for every activities to be closely monitored without some lapses.

On the part of bitcoin being on the disadvantage as against the support the fiat counterpart the reason for that I believe is not far fetched at all and its all about not being able to control and how fund is being moved considering the misconception of illegal activities being carried on with it but I still feel strongly gradually this is being corrected and with time, things might begin to start falling in place.

There are more (way better) regulated stuff on gambling then it was before.
Including People waiting on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) answer's about funding for crypto.

https://news.bitcoin.com/markets-update-crypto-prices-slide-after-sec-announcement/

They do whatever they want, if country bans gambling, then why the hell do they leave lottery? It's simply hilarious.
To my mind, country has to regulate gambling a little bit, for example they have to prohibit gambling for poor people, on another hand this business has to be free. Every casino claims to not gamble for profit, it's only for fun. When you are rich and still gamble for profit, then you absolutely deserve if you lose but when man is poor and he gambles casino, it's because of profit and everyone knows it well.

Sometimes they regulate because of hackers and taking care of taxes support vs money laundering.

You know what's even more hypocritical? In my country (Belgium) they're talking about banning all gambling related advertising.
Yet one of the most deceptive ads currently running is that of the national lottery.

I think it's a lot more deceptive than most of the casino ads we're seeing. They present this image that you'll become rich, just be playing the lottery.
While the regular casinos usually focus on presenting their games as fun, not something that will get you high profits.

The same is in my country too, its happen everywhere, but we all come down to one thing, it's what we talk about here for years, you can't compare centralized with decentralized system. In centralized system the ones on top do what ever suits them, they control the game, they control the players and they so what ever they wish, in decentralized system all of us have some voice.
This is great thread because it's open a big question, to trust government and politicians or to have trust in people around the world?
I agree with headline completely, governments are more predatory in every sense, in gambling too, that's why my choice is crypto in gambling and everything else.

No country has ever regulated gambling because of hackers.

Nothing new to this news governmnet official always finding how to collect taxes and it's okay because is under lpgivermnet law paying of taxes and also reguleted the gamblng site protection and security.

The only reason government bans their citizens from participating in online gambling activities is because they're not regulated and they can't charge taxes on these online services. To be specific, only US government have strict policies regarding online gambling. Meanwhile, it's totally alright to gamble in Las Vegas or participate in the lotteries carried out all over the country.

I second this thing. We must not be endorsing governments or pumping them to legalize this game just because we want to earn this this fake money. Why we are full class ready just to make this shit happens and ruin our lives? Why still there are gamblers and casinos that are running under nose of politicians and government law enforcement agencies. This is a big monopoly.

I don't think any governments want to save the economically backward people,they are banning it for some other reasons like money laundering or religious problems.But the gambling is only for fun purpose but the people doing this as a profit making job but they need to realize that they have chance of losing their money is more.So if they still doing that for money then they will get what they deserved.

I've noticed the same tendency in my country, but not with online casinos, with the real ones. Firstly, the government banned all private casinos (apparently because they were making too much money), but the law said that all kinds of casinos should be banned. Then, one year after another different establishments began to appear on the streets that said "national lottery", but when I came in one of those - it was just the same old casino, that said it's a lottery, and there are much more of them now, than there were private casinos. Now, as long as gamblers need to play their games they switched to those "lotteries" and all of the money goes to the government, but you can imagine how much black money can be made there and money laundering as well. So I absolutely agree with you here, crypto gambling isn't that burglarious.

With regards to the government, I guessed that money wasn't a fair method of regulations. Talking about black money, the laundering act was a worst scenario that had happened on authorities doing such corruption of power. Fair regulations doesn't initiate fair contribution to the growing economy of the country. There's always an underground manifestation against the funds collected through gambling association, which really attracts greedy intentions to those gambling operators.

It is rare that in my country the government does something as open as that, most of the time the corruption happens with the permissions given by it, in my country there were only a handful of casinos, and then one of the government officials before leaving his mandate gave thousands of permissions in a single day.

It is obvious he received money for that and now casinos have become a recurrent sight in the place that I live, do not get me wrong I like to gamble once in a while but since I know those casinos are there because of the corruption of government officials that love to sell our country I prefer to play in the casinos I knew were there before that or to gamble online.

This is much more complicated. Most  of the governments support these things mainly because of the tax they get. This tax is used for the welfare of poor and unprivileged and thus ultimately the money goes to those who need it. However, if the government is corrupt, then the money might not be reaching right hands.

Even if government completely bans these things, people will find loopholes or alternatives.

Among this game sessions, there is a strong back of government to many gambling casinos. Most of time these politicians are shareholders in such casinos. As far as crypto vs regulated gambling is concerned, we don’t have to get into details and such comparisons shouldn’t be made. I believe, we all must think how we can extract out all such stupid fellows who are getting in here but I am afraid we may not find any solution here as underground business are prime income source to most politicians hence regulating them will be highly impossible. But in my observation such government backed casinos are lagging with latest security and algorithm updates which may be a loophole to crack them out easily.

I don’t agree with you. You are basing your argument on the scale of the business and if bitcoin gambling was given free way, it would be at least as harmful as government backed gambling.


No wonder why the lottery is called a tax on stupid people, as the vast majority of people lose money. But that could be said of all casino games. Anyway, I don’t think there are more people addicted to the lottery than to online gambling in general.

I bet they did this to stop people from clogging the blockchain transactions.



This sounds interesting.  I read similar stuff exist on augur blockchain. Are there other platforms with similar betting -?  It would great if we could bet on things other than sports, entertainment and politics