Bitcoin Forum

What I know is that these gambling companies that accept Bitcoin as one of their accepted currencies are registered and licensed from Cyprus and Curacao (an island located in South America and a part of the Netherlands). We all know that there are only two nations that lawfully accept Bitcoin as a legal currency, El Salvador and Central African Republic. So how come that these gambling companies are allowed to put to use Bitcoin as one of their accepted currencies when neither Netherlands and Cyprus aren't legalizing Bitcoin as a currency? Are the authorities of these nations turning a blind eye on the Bitcoin use?

Or is it possible that gambling companies are allowed to accept any forms of tangible or non-tangible objects so long as they deem it valuable to their operations? Take for instance, casino chips and tokens are used to play games in the tables and on slot machines. So is this the case of Bitcoin too?

There license is for E-gambling and not for the currency besides there’s no strict law regarding forbidding of Bitcoin and altcoin on most of the country except China, Russia and other country that has strict regulations against crypto but the rest has no defined law in regards crypto that’s why this online gambling company can freely operate if they an e-gaming license coming from Curacao.

It's not only gambling companies. Just look at payment processors that accept bitcoin and give to the shop, by its choice, bitcoin or fiat. I think it's the same situation.
How they do it? I don't know. It may be something similar to what the crypto exchanges are allowed to do (they also accept both fiat and crypto for deposits and withdrawals), or it may be something similar to what pawn shops are allowed to do (accept anything they consider valuable).
So while it may look strange, I think that they're OK on this. I think that their strange residency is related to the gambling license, not the handling of the coins.

Actually the fact is that, they don’t use the license for using Bitcoins at site, rather those are gambling licenses issued by those companies.
Now the casinos who take the licenses, completely have the control to whether they want Bitcoins or FIAT to be integrated at the site.
Nevertheless the law in those nations are also not so strict regarding cryptos.

Bitcoin doesn't have to be considered a legal tender for people to be able to pay or get paid in bitcoin. It only has to be legal (regardless of what the government calls it) for the centralized regulated companies to accept bitcoin payments.
Basically if it is legal tender they would have to accept it but If it is a legal currency they can accept it if they want to.

Google tells me that there is no regulations that prohibits getting paid in bitcoin in Netherlands and I couldn't find anything about Cyprus. Which means bitcoin is legal in these two countries and anybody can use it as payment.

Online casino's are accessible to people in different locations, and the casino you play with may not be bound or affected by very strict laws of your country. On the other hand, Most governments do not worry too much about their citizens owning bitcoins as digital assets and making use of it for things like trading and say gambling, they just don't want it mixing up with their banking sector, just like the central bank in my country Nigeria recently clarified. So long you have a way to profit and get your money without going through the banks, you are good to go.

As far as I know most casinos and gambling sites operate in the legally gray area(probably slightly leaning more towards illegal) hence why they're still able to cater to users from all(or most countries). Heck, some of these sites don't even require any personal information and KYC at all; so even if your country banned that specific service, you can simply use a VPN/proxy.

Not everyone likes or uses so-called bitcoin, but every country has an interest in it. In illegal situations, people use this system to transfer money easily, and states allow it. No one should be cut off as a good angel.

Online casinos falls on online gambling license not on same regulations for exchanges or custodial wallets.
As mentioned already, online casinos can be accessed by different jurisdictions unless stated like US residents are not allowed to these casinos.
While some countries doesn't have crypto regulations so you can assumed accessing casinos from that country is either legal and probably not illegal, which put crypto casinos in grey area of crypto regulations.

But as far as i know every country now has online gambling regulations so using online casino wherever you are will fall on that regulations not crypto regulations.

Bitcoin is already considered currency, its been funding many noble act like the Greenpeace movement. We use it to donate in Ukraine war too. The Curacao or Cyprus gaming license provider probably doesnt care whether the casino accepts BTC or only fiat as long as they receive pay from these casinos.

If they are to regulate, most likely they could only approve a few crypto casinos. Unfortunately they are not regulators of online casinos.

In many countries Bitcoin and other cryptos are neither legal not illegal. They aren't explicitly forbidden, their usage isn't regulated, and thus a legal maxim that what isn't forbidden is allowed is relevant. So unless there's an explicit ban of using Bitcoin for gambling, there's no problem with gambling websites accepting Bitcoin. Also, I think you raised a good point that casinos often use chips, tokens, which are not any form of money but are allowed in casinos around the world, so yeah, cryptos can be viewed like that in case of gambling, I guess.

There are many gambling companies all over the world and some of them are licensed in their countries this is the case they usually have to pay huge amounts of tax and they will have some regulation issues while some others are not licensed or are from the countries where gambling is not even allowed and bitcoin and cryptocurrencies will help them to keep working by having online casinos while about your question I guess after the adoption of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies surely we can see even physical casinos accepting bitcoin and cryptocurrencies on slot machines.

They're legally gray operators in most of Europe.
The UK passed a law a few years ago banning foreign online casinos from onboarding their citizens without a license (I think it's mostly words as I haven't heard anything about it being used).


Most European law is based on what the Romans had.
A lot of European law is based off what other countries around them are doing too.

You can be paid in anything in the UK that's accepted by the payee. OP gave a good example with gambling chips.
Legal tender in UK law is defined as what the courts will accept to be paid in, I'm fairly certain the courts are then able to convert that into a currency the claimant asks for it in, and if not the bank of England will because they have a legal obligation to convert legal tender without fees.

IMO, using Bitcoin in a regulated gambling casino/website isn't a problem, as long as they followed the certain regulation of the chosen jurisdictions where they get a license that operates legally which is very notable and popular in the Curacao iGaming jurisdiction that didn't prohibit cryptocurrencies.

Some countries aren't legalizing Bitcoin but they regulate people who use it, those who used centralized exchange may experience a heavy KYC requirements process.

yes, they don't need btc to be the legal tender of the country before they can issue the gaming license. they have certain protocols when it comes to handling of payments. this is why, there's a section in their ToS about kyc requirements for their clients. but, with their license, they will issue some restrictions depending on their game providers. some games are not accessible to certain countries. this is why it is important to read the ToS of the casino, to check what countries they are not allowing to play specific games.

Has yet accepted Bitcoin as a legal currency does not mean locals there can not use Bitcoin. About Netherlands, there are activities of crypto industry there, companies, exchanges so they have yet officially banned Bitcoin.

In addition, don't forget about Web3 casinos that would give you more freedom. With Web3 casinos, you can connect your wallet and bet. Of course, it is more easily with tokens (ERC20, BEP20, etc.) but if it is Bitcoin, there would be other solutions as no direct way to connect Metamask wallet, example, and use Bitcoin to bet. The wallet is for tokens, not for Bitcoin.

I don't think the country itself has any rule/regulation about using Crypto as a payment method? Pretty sure that people wouldn't accept it only if it was stated, otherwise it's okay for people/businesses to use it. I guess the difference between the two is that being accepted as a legal tender is that it's under the law so everything about it's transactions is under the law, while if not accepted (but not banned) is pretty much an "it's your responsibility" kind of thing.

Usually countries issue specific bans on the use of bitcoin and generally gambling activities are always overlooked by this rule. And if you look at some of the well-known casino licenses, they prefer to register the company in somewhat crypto-friendly countries even though they basically operate or accept the majority of customers in their own country.

Consider money as the first acceptable means for an exchange which can be in fiat or bitcoin which is a digital currency in cryptocurrency, but according to your question, i think physical representation of assets like gold, legal documents can also stand in place as stake or surety for lending or gambling but i count it the worst ever decision to make because it will eventually turn bad on the gamblers in loosing everything valuable around him through gambling, also, this kind of ordeal is common with the physical casinos and not the online ones.
This topic sounds much of gambling discussion.

Use of cryptocurrency as a mode of payment is still hard to promote to many countries and allowing gambling activities, indeed, is a different case. Bith are not widely accepted in short, but if we would be looking on a bigger perspective, both of these things could really work. Since gambling in some countries, is prohibited, anonymity because of block chain could be an aid for the gambles to continue their 'hobby'. Gambling on the other hand could boost the use of cryptocurrencies with online transactions. From this picture, it could be an example of a domino effect and direct exchange of benefits from one another.

Some countries are unclear regarding the legal status of bitcoin and cryptos, which is why people use them. Whether it is legal or illegal, people will continue to use it until a clear picture of the legal situation is available.

I remember back in 2020 in Nigeria before they stopped banks from facilitating bitcoin transactions, bitcoin legality was not clear, not until it became a tool of the political fight to fund protesters, and since the government in power felt that the youths were being used for agitation to fight their failed government, they decided to stop banks from processing bitcoin transactions, but even at that, it does not stop people from doing crypto because nothing has been said about it.

The same thing applies to some of these casinos, they are not actually licenced but that doesn't stop them from operating. However, it is possible that Netherland and Cyprus may charge them later in the future for doing that if they decide to legalise bitcoin.

This is an interesting discussion and one that has taken the forefront on mass media in the past week as well.
I was just watching a show on the tube and they were analyzing why the major online casino's such as MGM and Fanduel (in the states) do not accept cryptocurrencies to gamble with while others are based on it. This is for sports gambling as the show I was watching was on a sports cable network.
It all comes down to licensing and what jurisdiction they operate out of.

Not only gambling companies, but you can think about any kind of business which accepts bitcoin operating in every countries. How can they accept bitcoin for products and services if it's not legal tender? Thankfully there aren't laws which prohibits bitcoin from being accepted in most countries of the world. People have freedom to accept the payment method they wish and with casinos it's not different. They simply have to fullfil what the local regulators ask for. Since they deal with btc, they probably just need to declare authorities annually their btc income in fiat values proportionally.

Not all corners of the world do share up on the same impression towards Bitcoin or crypto which as been said that its not accepted everywhere or anywhere which does simply means that people who do really look up for crypto payment methods but cant able to do so will just simply stick into those traditional ways in terms of payment.It is really just normal for a company to have those considerations
if ever if its allowed and legal.They cant just put up their business on risk if they do know that it was prohibited or something been banned.
We do have lots of options though and to those who are eager on using up their coins on playing gambling then we do have lots in online world.

For bitcoin not to be accepted as a legal tender in a country doesn't mean that it is an enemy of the country. There is hardly any country that you will be convicted for using bitcoin. What they do I to discourage the use of bitcoin through negative campaigns against bitcoin.

Like in my country, bitcoin is not a legal tender and you cannot trade it with any local banks. But that doesn't stop people from using and trading bitcoin and even displaying posters and billboards of bitcoin and even promoting bitcoin.
If you gambling company is licensed, it's upto you to chose what you accept.

If the legality is given by the government to Bitcoin or Crypto, then the government can make transactions with Bitcoin or crypto. For example, if Bitcoin is legal, the government can provide assistance to citizens in the form of Bitcoin as a substitute for Fiat.
Illegal does not mean the government forbids it, but illegal in the sense that the government is not responsible for all the risks that are obtained by its users.
In comparison Bitcoin is illegal with illegal drugs to be legal.
In the country of Canada legalized drugs in the form of marijuana in 2018 and they get a profit of 1 billion dollars from the regulations they issued. When the government legalizes marijuana, it does not mean that marijuana will eliminate the effects of drunkenness or the risks that people who use marijuana have.
Actually the government accepts Bitcoin or crypto. If we explore more deeply, some of the investors who buy Bitcoin are also people who work in the government. It's just that they are not ready to take risks in the form of authority.
Back to the gaming platform. We know gambling has risks, and that risk is only ready to be accepted by individuals. So that the use of Bitcoin on gambling platforms also only has an effect on personal, so the government does not need to ban Bitcoin. If the government bans Bitcoin because it is risky, then the government should automatically ban gambling platforms that are more risky.
Maybe that's just my view on legality, and the concept of using Bitcoin in general.

As long as the gambling company in question adhere to the financial laws of the country from which they operates there should not be any legal problem on their operations. Countries that have not legalize btc does not ban it completely either, they only made it clear to the public government did not give an official authorization for transacting with it, it is kind off do at your own risk thing.

The situation with btc in most countries is neither legal or illegal, which is confusing for people to understand and many businesses but gambling companies despite this gave their users an option to use btc, they don't plan on waiting on an official approval from the government which may never happen or will take a long time to happen.  

I didn't hear that the Nigerian government made these strict laws against crypto until recently.
Coming to BTC trading, it's better to use P2P transactions to buy or sell bitcoin. Mainstream apps may be banned, and the government can easily find the Bank account of those apps through just a little research.

Both that are mostly judged negatively. Gambling is everywhere and in many countries many rules have to be respected. In Germany, there are even different rules in the regions. They do not make sense. I think there is a solution for everything if they want it. Bitcoin has a similarly hard time and that's exactly why they belong together.

It's easier to manage input and output to use your own currency and not I keep getting in trouble for money laundering.