Bitcoin Forum

Hi community!

We have recently published our newest story and this time it's about what's happening in Europe in the online gambling markets. Regulation has made it really difficult for the companies in this industry and it is affecting the currency transfers as well. Some countries have even intimidated with transaction blocks.

Graham A. Jarvis writes for example that Norway has given warning letters to major companies operating from Malta and blocked their transactions from Norway. This is a big cat on the table at the moment and a lot of companies are affected.

How alarming do you see this progress? Can this increase the popularity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies being used in online gambling?

Read the whole article here: https://bojoko.com/stories/blocked-winning-the-money-transfer-wars/ (https://bojoko.com/stories/blocked-winning-the-money-transfer-wars/)

Regulations has made it very difficult for some of the online gambling to strive and to me bitcoin be a decentralized form of money will help those people from those that are making laws that might make it difficult for online's gambling sites to survive.
I now see the reasons why bitcoin is becoming popular among the gamblers these days. KYC that ought to expose scammers and fraudsters is now not good enough and gamblers and investors are now prefer privacy. Transactions are now made easy and privacy of the send and received kept.

The answer is right in front of you! The answer is Bitcoin or any other popular cryptos like Litecoin, EOS, Dash or Doge or whatever you like! Cryptos are the best currency to be used in gambling business because of its anonymity and governments doesn't have the power to block any of it! If government start taking harsh measures to block banking access to the gambling industry, they can just move their operations to a gambling friendly nation and start operating using cryptocurrency! The adoption rate and demand, both will increase for cryptos as well as the users will have peace of mind! Simple! 

The gambling industry all over the world has been an industry subject to high level of scrutiny beyond any industry and this is largely due to the high propensity for it to be infiltrated by people who want to launder money. Even in territory where gambling is allowed, the high level of control and the mandate of reporting and filings for compliance purposes are second to none. In this scenario, quite a number of people might want to adopt crypto as a a way to go but I'm not expecting it to be significant because for you to convert to crypto means you need to have the cash and do it via the exchange sites where there are processes in place to ensure adequate KYC are complied with in other to carry out certain amount of transaction.

Bitcoin, other crypto currencies and bitcoin casions can certainly help citizens of those countries who are not allowed to gamble online for whatever reason.
Unless the government bans access to those sites. In that case one can always use VPN or SOCKS but you are then in breach of the TOS and the casino can suspect your are using multiple accounts and ban you.

How can someone stop it when crypto gambling is all over the world. It's been popular already and more people every year shifts their attention to this industry. Even fiat based casinos are also threatened here. And there are ways to avoid detection like VPN so I don't think they will win on this war.

Malta is also one of the safest haven for online gambling, it government wanted to stop it, then they should cut the heads directly and go to Malta. But they couldn't do that and Malta won't allow someone to disrupt one of the biggest income generator for them.

while it is expected for the governments to protect their markets , you should have known better than to try and establish a fiat casino in a country like Norway
they have one of the stringiest regulations , along with the UK 
will it increase the popularity of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies being used in gambling?  definitely so
people who run casinos will transfer to crypto sooner or later or the industry will get monopolized by the "legal" fiat  casinos
I don't think that domain blocking would solve the problem for the regulators , it can be got around easily
for example there is an industry of semi-legal ( read illegal) gambling online sites in Russia that are getting blocked - they just change their domain every now and then and promote it agressively
some say 80% of the ads in the pirated movies are sponsored by such casinos

Probably it will increase. However, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can also be tracked to the owner and he might have legal problems using btc as well.

The good thing about bitcoin is that we can use mixers. Gambling is certainly a good market for mixers, as gamblers need to clear their tracks because of regulations issues.

With this problem i dont think that the use of crypto or the use of crypto in gambling will increase  . 

crypto such as btc arent also fully trackable , they can only see you address or balances but not your name and other info  . about mixers , mixers dont also work on btc alone because it can also be used on other cryptos  and mixers arent only good for gambling purpose but it can be used on other activities as well if you are realy consious about your privacy   

One thing strange about these regulations is that they never get to touch giants like Bet365. They are allowed to operate freely even in restricted markets.

As mentioned on the article, they are taking different approach on this matter.

The solution for this is to just let them do what they want to do and find an alternative way and avikz is right, it's true bitcoin/cryptocurrencies.

What do you mean? Can you elaborate a little bit? Bet365 is based in England and under the regulation of UK Gambling Comission.

I think it is also a question of casinos making up their minds. If they want to be regulated, then they must push for a Bitcoin friendly country like Malta to make gambling fully regulated and fully legalized, and at the same time they can then use their blockchain laws to activate pure bitcoin casinos.

Now, you have to be either fiat or crypto.

This situation had since been evolved when EU was moving towards being a highly gambling oriented continent. I believe that even Bitcoin can't help here except if everything goes transparent (centralized basically) and casinos decide to go against fiat completely. This is actually a golden opportunity for BTC to bang fiat and work even with regulations while still giving gamblers the chance to continue with their gambling activities. I had been truly waiting for such a problem to arise where people are left with no alternatives but to start using BTC whether an average person or a merchant.

There are some problematic points here. Crypto can indeed help, but if a casino tells clearly that certain countries are not allowed, the use of VPN is tricky, since in case of wins, especially for bigger amounts, problems can occur and, because the player is from a "banned" country, the payment may not be made.
Then people seems to forget that Bitcoin is only pseudo-anonymous and, within certain limits, it can be tracked. Even more, certain web wallets clearly prohibit the use of casinos.

All in all, while crypto is indeed beneficial for the gamblers and the gambling industry, Bitcoin may not be the perfect answer and some altcoins may be better suited, especially the privacy oriented ones.

I agree that being from a  banned country may be problematic.
However, if no kyc is required and the website is legit, you will probably get paid. Just scream on social media and it will probably workout (as long as no kyc is required and they don't know where you are from)

Anyway, the best is to avoid playing too much money using a VPN if your country is banned in the platform

I believe that gambling is somehow in the human nature , and banning gambling activities is kind of useless. People will find a way to gamble illegally (by using a VPN or whatever method)

The problem is that most websites that are affected by these transfer blocks usually already have some sort of KYC process in place.
It's the case with a lot of traditional gambling websites.

So, I personally do not see them making the switch to crypto immediately, since it would require them to overhaul their entire system basically.
What's more likely is that they will find some other way to circumvent these blocks, still using fiat currency.

I have had one of my exchange account blocked after I receive a payout from a gambling website. I still have my funds on the said exchange and I feel like not retrieving it anymore given that they are asking for tons of information just to get my account unlocked. Knowing that online gambling has long been frowned upon in this country, it's only recently that they managed to up their game and involved cryptocurrency exchanges in the said crackdown. Perhaps some countries had it easy, but in the Philippines, it's exceptionally hard to go and gamble online and try to withdraw your funds.

I think that you will be more careful in the future so that there are no problems.  If you register on some resource, then you need to follow all the rules in order to be able not only to identify yourself for the Administration of the resource, but also to be able to protect yourself and your assets.  First of all, you need to provide real passport data if the exchanger required it.  It seems to me that with all the reliable information, returning your funds or unlocking your account will be much easier.

Malta has been the very center of online gambling for years now, this is not a crypto related blocking issue, it is more about Malta being able to provide something to the world where countries do not really enjoy.

I mean the casinos that operate in Malta probably pay taxes in Malta as well so you have millions of people around the world paying money to Malta company (which is probably not even in Malta but got the license there) and that Malta company sending money from there to where they really are which is making a good amount of both tax and currency influx for Malta government. Other nations will eventually call a stop to it because it can't continue forever, that would mean all of their citizens giving money to some other country and that just won't fly here.

its very common for Philippines to block suspected gambling site's tansactions
one of the most popular wallets coins.ph is doing exactly that , sadly
think they have a database of the deposit wallets and if it matches your transaction addy - you are in trouble
the same is with Coinbase , they can block your account and hold all the coins in it , it is in their TOS
I expect even more draconian laws and rules introduced very soon due to AML and counter terrorism laws
while the amount of cryptocurrency related crimes are very low in comparison to fiat , governments choose to pick on crypto

Ofcourse, it will increase the popularity of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies a bit for gambling. However, future kyc enforcement on gambling sites could make things a little harder for people from countries with tough gambling regulation.  Decentralized gambling would be great alternative in such situations.

As far as I know, only casinos that has been built up illegally or are not following the laws and regulation of the countries are facing such problems. This is the main problem of fiat currency. The person in power can block your transaction according to their own will. Now if such online fiat gambling market gets banned, this will indeed increase the popularity of crypto gambling casino which in turn will make bitcoin and other crypto coins more popular.

I think they have some reason why they choose to pick crypto instead of fiat since using fiat can be easily traced if it is being used to send somewhere around the globe. Crypto, on the other hand, has the capability to mask the money since it is anonymous in terms of no names and address whoever sent the money.

I didn't know that such a country was too strict when it comes to online gambling they will automatically block all of your transaction. No wonder that exchange is centralized and is being controlled by the government.

Whoever trying to regulate gambling they might just block USD payment system like Skrill. But fortunately no one could ban crypto-currency transaction and that's the reason why most if gamblers moving into crypto gambling and crypto gambling becoming most popular nowadays. Gamblers are more interested to play where no need to use KYC. So blocking payment getaway or gambling website will not effect to gamblers since there is crypto-currency gambling websites.

The very nature of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies help the gamblers to remain anonymous and not to get into the drama of legality and other sorts of restrictions which are imposed by the legal laws of the country. Gambling has been considered as a way of doubling as well as losing money in many jurisdictions. That's probably the reason why they are being banned at a enormous rate globally. But if gamblers tend to move onto crypto gambling platforms they would be easier to play with their money and certainly win the games. The currencies can be transferred off at a later stage.

KYC practices are being followed in some gambling companies which might further risk the privacy of the gambler. Cruptocurrency gambling platforms tend to eradicate the problem and the KYC would be asked only when the withdrawal is higher than usual.

Yes it can affect the use of bitcoin and cryptocurrency most especially in that affected area but I think there most have been cases of fraudster or irregularities or maybe the government don't just concur with the idea of gambling

Bitcoin might be helpful when it comes to money transfer wars but do you think that it is really wise to put your money into gambling site? Is this not suppose to be a entertainment? Why put everything on here and try to win it? I do not find any good reason why they should put it and if there is really huge money deposit on X site, wont they be curious about how they get the money? It might be a money laundry? Even if you diversify it to through the site, then it will still be a big question

Note that I have mentioned bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies might be a very good alternative to standard gambling platforms which uses fiat money as the deposit and withdrawal options. So what if a country has banned gambling but the citizen of that particular country willing to gamble? Cryptocurrencies are meant to be used as a privacy specific money which can be used for transferring or gambling regardless of laws and ideas which are being followed in the country. This was the true vision of satoshi which was also mentioned in the whitepaper, that we don't want to rely on any third parties or financial institutions to process our payments.

If you don't find any good reason on why to gamble or use cryptocurrency as a payment for gambling, how would you be able to deposit and gamble with your money if the country you are residing has banned gambling? Note that gambling are followed as a practice in US, UK, EU, Australia and other western countries where cryptocurrency profits can be payable through taxes! So if they are payable through taxes who would be able to question you regarding where does your gambling money come from? How come diversifying through a varied number of sites would be a question? LMK.

I think that everything will be very simple.  First, cryptocurrency legalization and full control, and then tasks, the online gambling platform will require KYC.  This is what will happen legally.  But if there are restrictions, then there will always be those who bypass them.  Therefore, gambling will to some extent be in the shadows.

Do you think that people are stop on that just because the country ban gambling on their site? This is crypto that we are talking about, how do you think that they going to banned it then? There is no regulations for not playing on some casino online, even if they do how are you going to blocked them? Eventually they will always find ways to do it again and again. But again like I said before what is the point saving it on gambling site? People going casino either to increase their money or just to have some fun so if you say that how about their money being deposited, I believe many exchange platform willingly to do that

You seem to have messed up with what I have said in the above post!  ??? Likewise what would be the possible options to deposit money into a gambling site if you don't like to use crypto as a gambling currency?

Aren't you aware of the deposit bonuses being offered by various crypto gambling platforms? Sports Betting and certain strategy games require gamblers to hold their coins in the platform. Apart from that, if you are a gambler you would certainly just use all your money for gambling. Gamblers are quite addictive to that and based on the luck they would either win or lose all their investment.

It's obvious enough that bitcoin can help transfering money from where it was to it's final destination and will received by the owner once it is transferred succesfully. Bitcoin could help transferring money and it is also anonymous or you can use private coin which can hide the sender, the receiver and also the amount that will be sent.