European cryptocurrency restrictions

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

From what I know, every transaction is to be tracked.

Every transaction may be seen on the public ledger, but not all can be tracked, this is now when it all depends on the kind of wallet we used, if its an exchange wallet which is a custodial wallet or a non custodial wallet, also for most of the physically represented gambling platforms, these tracking could work for them because the government may be running after them through their physical locations.

How lost are we? Does it also look so hopeless in your countries? Is there any way out of this situation?

I will always advise that we should start from the understanding or what the law in our respective countries says about gambling and the specific aspect we want to specialized on before gong further.

[Weawant]

Sometimes this could be a measure with which the states want to control gambling,  and so they will decide to tax players higher and if you cannot keep up with such you may just  have to quit gambling,  another could be for the purpose of checkmating laundry as its believed that some casinos are used to carry out such so all of these laws are to help put all of that in place actually and not just about  sabotaging gambling or casinos.

[stompix]

Dont be deceived cryptocurrency gambling cannot be shutdown.

Really?
What stops them from taking down every single website that host a casino or a bookmaker?
Casinos are no different than mixers at that point, if a government is bent on shutting them down they will, you might get lucky if you live in a country that has no say on the global scale but most Western countries would not give a damn in which jurisdiction such a website is hiding.
All those sites are centralized, just as the US can shut down polymarket whenever they want they could do the same with any other website.

So this mean we should not care as long as there are discriminating laws against gamblers in Europe, so far it is this way but this new framework lays the ground from our European institutions to do whatever they like and whatever in their power in order to stop gambling based on occurrences from this industry.

Discrimination means there is something targeting you specifically, there is no discrimination for users in regulations for a service provider, it's like requiring milk producers to meet some standards is discrimination on people that buy milk. 

[Hispo]

Dont be deceived cryptocurrency gambling cannot be shutdown.

Really?
What stops them from taking down every single website that host a casino or a bookmaker?
Casinos are no different than mixers at that point, if a government is bent on shutting them down they will, you might get lucky if you live in a country that has no say on the global scale but most Western countries would not give a damn in which jurisdiction such a website is hiding.

In the very rare and unlikely scenario most of governments of the world decided to shut down all crypto casinos worldwide, then there would be a huge surge on the use of decentralized casinos, those which are programmed, deployed and used within a Blockchain (Like Ethereum or matic). It would be just matter of time before someone with enough money and desire to capitalize on the vacuum in the market appeared and opened such casino. And since blockchains cannot be shut down easily as websites can, then crypto gambling will continue to go on, just in different terms from what we see today with centralized casinos.

Though, I can assure you centralized and regulated casinos are not going anywhere. They have much money and with money they can influence on politics, specially in countries like the United States.

[Darker45]

All crypto bookmakers are illegal? Which country are you from, by the way? Anyway, imposing big taxes on crypto gambling platforms and imposing a ban on them are two different things. If bookmakers can operate while requiring users to pay the necessary taxes, then they're not illegal. They just have to abide by strict rules.

As to tracking, I guess that's the rule nowadays. They're centralized registered platforms, after all. KYC is a must. It's always specified in their terms and conditions that they are willing to cooperate with authorities, that they share data, that they're bound by certain laws and regulations, and so on.

Always be mindful of the terms. They're updated every now and then, possibly without informing their users, so you have to keep a look for yourself for the latest changes.

[Solosanz]

You can't hide @OP, EU seems to be the most strictest countries about cryptocurrency regulations, you're forced to deal with that or you can fly to other countries.

All crypto bookmakers are illegal? Which country are you from, by the way? Anyway, imposing big taxes on crypto gambling platforms and imposing a ban on them are two different things. If bookmakers can operate while requiring users to pay the necessary taxes, then they're not illegal. They just have to abide by strict rules.

I think that's what he looking for, he want to play in not legal casino in order to avoid paying high taxes.

Technically all crypto bookmakers are illegal in every countries, except countries who have no regulation with online casinos, so they would be in grey area.

[stompix]

Dont be deceived cryptocurrency gambling cannot be shutdown.

Really?
What stops them from taking down every single website that host a casino or a bookmaker?
Casinos are no different than mixers at that point, if a government is bent on shutting them down they will, you might get lucky if you live in a country that has no say on the global scale but most Western countries would not give a damn in which jurisdiction such a website is hiding.

In the very rare and unlikely scenario most of governments of the world decided to shut down all crypto casinos worldwide, then there would be a huge surge on the use of decentralized casinos, those which are programmed, deployed and used within a Blockchain (Like Ethereum or matic).

Yeah, no! 
If you think people will go through all the trouble of setting up and dealing with the stuff of a decentralized client on a decentralized chain that's well above for your average Joe in terms of difficulty you're deeply mistaken, if it were so Bisq would have volumes in the millions, but as we stand people prefer to load their crypto on a Visa card to spend it 
People like simple things, most of them will simply give up after trying to find a normal casino that is still regulated and that's it, much like a protest in the street is fun to do it once or two times to show the middle finger to the government but 99% of them get lazy by day three.

Not to forget that we don't actually have any decentralized casino at all right now.

[satscraper]

~

Yeah, in fact those restrictions  force us to give  our tax returns ^{relevant to profit from gambling} the extra scrutiny as nobody wants to pay the enormous penal fines for improperly filled-in  tax returns. This impose extra burden for both me and my financial consultant who needs to know all my crypto transactions relevant to my gambling. Unfortunately my life becomes tougher.

[btc_angela]

Hi, is this the end of crypto bookmakers in Europe?

Well, I'm concerned about KYC and transaction tracking in the cryptocurrency world, which are to be in force from the new year.
Wanting to make a deposit using e.g. USDC, let's say on Stake. What in such a situation?

What about the sick gambling law that applies in my country. All crypto bookmakers are illegal.
Only those with a high tax on the player's side are available, which means that you are washed out from the start.

From what I know, every transaction is to be tracked.

How lost are we? Does it also look so hopeless in your countries? Is there any way out of this situation?

Let this European institution fall already.
I invite you to the discussion.

As much as we hate it, there's no more (pseudo)anonymity in gambling, at least in certain thresholds. Every one of them are being mandated by the governing body that give them licenses or the country that they are going to operate.

And the regulators are hiding behind AML that's why they are asking for KYC now. Again, it might be that bad if you are not hiding anything, and casinos are also being push by this regulators to handle the data very carefully otherwise they will be fine or their contract not going to be renewed if they fail to handle all our information in cases of hacks or leakage of the data.

[iv4n]

How lost are we? Does it also look so hopeless in your countries? Is there any way out of this situation?

Serbia is quite open to gambling, there are a lot of local casinos, and it seems to me that in recent years many new online and land-based casinos have appeared. As for crypto gambling, there are no laws about it, for now, there are some regulations about cashing out in our currency.

But the European Union is something else, and you asked a very interesting question: is there a way around the new rules that are being imposed on you, and has anyone tried anything yet? Can using a VPN and Monero help?

[Oluwa-btc]

Dont be deceived cryptocurrency gambling cannot be shutdown. Of course there will be restrictions enact by the law makers and even the law makers will not keep to the law. The restrictions are for those who cant find alternative means to gamble. Just like cryptocurrency was restricted in my country but we still use it, invest in it and make transactions. Yet no one knows unless you decide to spit it out.

Nobody's goin' spit it out! I'm thrilled to see that people can still be very cooperative and diligent when it's a matter of cryptocurrency.The only challenge that people experienced was only for a certain period of time before ever they were able to figure out how to execute,manage and improve basically in areas of their own concern.

[Slow death]

Dont be deceived cryptocurrency gambling cannot be shutdown. Of course there will be restrictions enact by the law makers and even the law makers will not keep to the law. The restrictions are for those who cant find alternative means to gamble. Just like cryptocurrency was restricted in my country but we still use it, invest in it and make transactions. Yet no one knows unless you decide to spit it out.

Nobody's goin' spit it out! I'm thrilled to see that people can still be very cooperative and diligent when it's a matter of cryptocurrency.The only challenge that people experienced was only for a certain period of time before ever they were able to figure out how to execute,manage and improve basically in areas of their own concern.

In my opinion, it's time for people to start creating associations for bitcoin in their countries and explain to politicians how cryptocurrencies work and pressure politicians to approve good laws about cryptocurrencies. What has been happening is that politicians, during the campaign, talk about many things they will do but never talk about bitcoin. In most cases, politicians don't even know anything about cryptocurrencies but want to approve tough laws about cryptocurrencies.

[GxSTxV]

Bookmakers must follow regulations to operate legally, in order for them to ensure transparency and player protection, otherwise they will be only risking themselves beside their players funds. I think as crypto adoption grows, KYC and transaction tracking are becoming mandatory to prevent fraud and money laundering.
Platforms like Stake will likely comply limiting fully anonymous gambling as they have asked already all players to pass the second level of security, otherwise you cannot play.
If crypto bookmakers are illegal in your country, then licensed options may be scarce and high taxes drive players toward offshore sites. The trend in Europe is tighter regulation not less. While feeling bad for what’s happening now, it’s only the reality for legal operations, I think for fairer laws or seeking legal alternatives may be the best options is moving forward and accepting these limitations.

[Weawant]

In my opinion, it's time for people to start creating associations for bitcoin in their countries and explain to politicians how cryptocurrencies work and pressure politicians to approve good laws about cryptocurrencies. What has been happening is that politicians, during the campaign, talk about many things they will do but never talk about bitcoin. In most cases, politicians don't even know anything about cryptocurrencies but want to approve tough laws about cryptocurrencies.

Politicians are usually selfish and so it will take a crypto enthusiast who turns out a politician can then relate well with what crypto is and would try seeing how it cam be incorporated into the government but with others who aren't into crypto it will become  a problem  because they aren't  really seeing  the direct benefit to them and the fact that they don't really have the soul control over it, so it will not make sense to them when u try enlightening them about it but if it were centralized such that they can influence it, then adoption will be something most of the countries will do without a second taught.

[Jawhead999]

Honestly, it's quite hard to answer because your question should be answered by legal who work in EU or at least people who live in EU.

But the European Union is something else, and you asked a very interesting question: is there a way around the new rules that are being imposed on you, and has anyone tried anything yet? Can using a VPN and Monero help?

Using VPN and Monero might help, but the transactions should be small, IIRC you can withdraw your coins without need to submit KYC if you only withdraw less than $1K per day. The problem is when someone win a lot like $100K, will they choose to withdraw $1K per day? not to mention the fees charged by casino is really high.

[AmoreJaz]

Honestly, it's quite hard to answer because your question should be answered by legal who work in EU or at least people who live in EU.

But the European Union is something else, and you asked a very interesting question: is there a way around the new rules that are being imposed on you, and has anyone tried anything yet? Can using a VPN and Monero help?

Using VPN and Monero might help, but the transactions should be small, IIRC you can withdraw your coins without need to submit KYC if you only withdraw less than $1K per day. The problem is when someone win a lot like $100K, will they choose to withdraw $1K per day? not to mention the fees charged by casino is really high.

If you are only withdrawing small amount, some of the casinos are still accomodating such withdrawal without KYC. But definitely, if they start seeing big numbers, they will surely flag down the account and may be start asking for credentials. Also, using VPN is not a guarantee as some casinos won't permit such route. You need to confirm it from their end if you really need to do this route of getting out of money from the platform.

[Charles-Tim]

Sometimes this could be a measure with which the states want to control gambling,  and so they will decide to tax players higher and if you cannot keep up with such you may just  have to quit gambling

The government that allows its citizens to gamble but discouraging them by imposing high tax on them is only foolish because people in the country will not gamble on the gambling sites registered in the country. They will prefer to go for offshore gambling sites.

another could be for the purpose of checkmating laundry as its believed that some casinos are used to carry out such so all of these laws are to help put all of that in place actually and not just about  sabotaging gambling or casinos.

Do not mind them. If you have the ability to know people that are laundering money, you will find out that most money that are laundered are still in the banks.