Bitcoin Forum

They'll just move to alt coins or some other alternative currency.

It depends on the jurisdiction.  If it is in the US or other location that is controlling regarding gambling, I don't think they'll last long.  If they are located where gambling is legal, then they probably will last quite a long time, particularly if they attempt to block (yeah, right) people from the US etc. 

The US has shot itself in the foot with regard to its nanny-state attitude regarding gambling. 

Globally, over eighty countries have legalized online gambling. Great Britain is the first large government to allow online casinos to operate on their soils, and stand to gain a large amount in their regulation and taxation (Nelson 2007). Shortly after the U.S. passed the Gambling Enforcement Act, a conference was held with delegates from 30 countries looking to implement a uniform Online Gambling policy. The U.S. failed to send a representative (Nelson 2007).

One problem with legislating against online gambling is the sheer difficulty in controlling what goes on the Internet (Hamilton 2008). The Internet is an incredibly massive entity consisting of millions of smaller entities. One of the problems with this is the question of jurisdiction. Who controls the internet? In effect, this bill implies the ability of the U.S. government and banks to monitor and determine the legality of any and all activity on the Internet (Nelson 2007). Who has the right to determine what is or isn’t appropriate for the internet? Explore the links below for a brief commentary on these questions.

I don't think it matters the sites let you gamble in BTC. They will probably start getting their domains seized and stuff soon.

If the domains are seized they'll just either move to one outside US control/influence or to TOR. It is too bad too, the US is frittering away its lead in many areas. Although after the NSA scandal, perhaps that is a positive for the world if not the US

Then they move to an onion site and resume.

I'm not quite sure why everyone says gambling sites need to move to Tor / .onion.

There are thousands of gambling sites running quite legally on the normal web. Nobody has taken these down. Nobody is going to take down bitcoin-based gambling sites if they are hosted in a gambling-friendly country.

until someone comes up with decentralized gambling engine allowing people play games P2P safely in privacy behind encryption using their preferred digital currency. what's then?

They don't need to move to a tor/.onion-only site, just move their hosting/servers to a country that is fine with gambling.

Some may but excluding US players requires identifying your customers.  Think that is going to be popular with bitcoin players.   Also being in a gambling friendly country is not a magic bullet if you let US players play, just ask Full Tilt Poker (google poker black friday).

If it is impossible to block US players using that method, and it is not provable that a player is playing from the US, would the us gov come down on the site? I don't think any sane owner would want to find out unless they assess the cost of doing business to be worth it (the amount full tilt settled for with no admission of guilt was laughably low).

It's impossible to block U.S. players who want to gamble using Bitcoin. U.S. regulation on gambling is at a bank level. The popularity of Bitcoin gambling definitely stems a lot from the fact that U.S. gamblers cannot use their U.S. banks and debit cards to online gamble. There is also somewhat of a gray area in general as banks and traditional financial networks are not involved in Bitcoin gambling sites, just as taxation is still undefined for many.

I don't want to do it =/= impossible.

If you verified your customers are non-US then you would be compliant with US laws.  If you don't claiming it is "impossible" won't be a defense.  Not wanting to verify your customers to comply with US laws doesn't make it impossible.

Cryptocurrency gambling won't be legal than it can be compared to drugs, it's not legal but if you want you can get them.

Well that is my point.

PartyPoker for example blocked US player = no legal action.
FullTiltPoker did not block US players = legal action.

Just being in another country doesn't make you immune to US legal action unless you ALSO block US players you can't really do that unless you know your customers (name, address, residence information, etc).  Bitcoin doesn't really change that dynamic.  So if when the US decides to go after companies there are two routes:
a) block US players but that means collecting KYC type information (probably required for any legit company anyways).
b) go underground operating using TOR.

My point is that the idea of "just move servers" and keeping doing business as-is is hilariously naive.

yeah, the U.S. doesn't completely control every country in the world, though it sometimes seems like that. they'd either move their sites to the darkweb or go to some safehaven country.

Yeah ask Full Tilt Poker how well that strategy worked.

Converting to tor would be a huge hit to cryptocurrency gambling. Some of the people are not going to want to go to the added trouble, and others are not going to like the illegality of it. I do not think that BTC gambling sites will be hit for another few years though, it will take some of the mainstream online poker fans getting involved before that happens.

They'll just move to alt coins or some other alternative currency.

I actually think it is only a matter of time before conventional gambling sites join on the bangwagon, when legislation is a little more tied down. I expect William Hill et al, will be accepting bitcoin within 2014. Anyone agree?

Obviously the gambling site is not legitimate, it is simply using Bitcoin as a tool for gambling, which obviously needs to be supervised. These sites may be registered in small islands or the like and want to avoid regulation.

Hey folks,

As we can all see, the BTC gambling sector seems to be doing quite well. For the time being we seem to be operating within a grey zone as crypto currencies are yet to be categorized in the same way as cash.

How long do you think it will be before crypto gambling sites are forced to operate through the same restrictions?

It will take a long time to shut it down, because it is very uneasy to remove gambling in our economy and what more these sites that produces very big money and it cant be shut down by a single move, it will take too long time

we have enjoyed a really long period with little to no regulation. those times are starting to pass. plan accordingly, this is a risk in some markets.