Thinking of starting a Bitcoin Casino.

[x128]

So I've recently coded a Bitcoin Gambling site (only one game - hi/lo). It works fine, provably fair, and all. I stil have to work on the frontend though (styling, responsive design, etc.). That won't take much time. I'm planning to get the site up and running. I have a few questions:

1. Legal aspects. Would I need a license?
2. What should be my pot/bank size to get it started?
3. Best practices for running a BTC Gambling site (any BTC casino owners answer this please).
4. Any tips you'd like to give me?

Thanks.

[michinzx]

depending on where youre hosting this site, its a legal gray area at worst. youd probably need a few hundred btc in cold storage as the house's bankroll minimum. you should most likely consider security to be one of the top priorities in your site as well.

[x128]

depending on where youre hosting this site, its a legal gray area at worst. youd probably need a few hundred btc in cold storage as the house's bankroll minimum. you should most likely consider security to be one of the top priorities in your site as well.

I myself am a white-hat hacker. I pentested it well (others have too) and it is quite secure. And where do you suggest I host the site?

[RHavar]

If you haven't already, one thing worth looking to is moneypot.com We offer an API and a bankroll as a service, which allows you to make risk-free profit if you can bring gamblers to the table. You can see some examples of casinos that are based on it: dustdice.com and betterbets.io

You can checkout our thread or site for more info

[PenguinFire]

Let me ask you this: Is there anything new or innovative you plan on bringing to the table?  I think that is the biggest draw to new gambling sites these days.

[x128]

Let me ask you this: Is there anything new or innovative you plan on bringing to the table?  I think that is the biggest draw to new gambling sites these days.

To be honest, at the moment there is nothing innovative. It is just like all the other casinos out there. But I have several plans for it.

[x128]

If you haven't already, one thing worth looking to is moneypot.com We offer an API and a bankroll as a service, which allows you to make risk-free profit if you can bring gamblers to the table. You can see some examples of casinos that are based on it: dustdice.com and betterbets.io

You can checkout our thread or site for more info

I will look into it. Thank you.

[coinableS]

IIRC when Eric created and launched moneypot his bank roll was around 80-90 bitcoins and that was enough. I remember him saying it was nerve racking the first few days when he went to sleep wondering if someone would bust his bank roll by the time he woke up.

What you could do is limit the max bet size if you have a smaller bank roll, but don't make it too small or you'll lose potential players.

As for legality that's a huge gray area and a risk.

Good luck on your project.

[x128]

IIRC when Eric created and launched moneypot his bank roll was around 80-90 bitcoins and that was enough. I remember him saying it was nerve racking the first few days when he went to sleep wondering if someone would bust his bank roll by the time he woke up.

What you could do is limit the max bet size if you have a smaller bank roll, but don't make it too small or you'll lose potential players.

As for legality that's a huge gray area and a risk.

Good luck on your project.

Thank you for your informative reply.

How do BTC casino sites in general run (considering the legality issues) ?

[coinableS]

IIRC when Eric created and launched moneypot his bank roll was around 80-90 bitcoins and that was enough. I remember him saying it was nerve racking the first few days when he went to sleep wondering if someone would bust his bank roll by the time he woke up.

What you could do is limit the max bet size if you have a smaller bank roll, but don't make it too small or you'll lose potential players.

As for legality that's a huge gray area and a risk.

Good luck on your project.

Thank you for your informative reply.

How do BTC casino sites in general run (considering the legality issues) ?

I believe they must run as anonymous as possible. So godaddy, hostgator and other mainstream providers are definitely not an option. I would assume they run somewhere out of any US jurisdiction.

[Bardman]

Your bankroll should be high, but that depends on what your bankroll is, if you have only 10 btc, you would have to make the max profit of your casino something around 0.1 to be safe, so it depends on your bankroll. If you want other tips, have a faucet for your site, do a few giveaways and people will come to your site

[x128]

IIRC when Eric created and launched moneypot his bank roll was around 80-90 bitcoins and that was enough. I remember him saying it was nerve racking the first few days when he went to sleep wondering if someone would bust his bank roll by the time he woke up.

What you could do is limit the max bet size if you have a smaller bank roll, but don't make it too small or you'll lose potential players.

As for legality that's a huge gray area and a risk.

Good luck on your project.

Thank you for your informative reply.

How do BTC casino sites in general run (considering the legality issues) ?

I believe they must run as anonymous as possible. So godaddy, hostgator and other mainstream providers are definitely not an option. I would assume they run somewhere out of any US jurisdiction.

Yeah, I looked up a few popular sites, all of them were hosted in offshore locations.

Your bankroll should be high, but that depends on what your bankroll is, if you have only 10 btc, you would have to make the max profit of your casino something around 0.1 to be safe, so it depends on your bankroll. If you want other tips, have a faucet for your site, do a few giveaways and people will come to your site

Thank you. But is 10 BTC enough at all?

[blumangroup]

Your bankroll should be high, but that depends on what your bankroll is, if you have only 10 btc, you would have to make the max profit of your casino something around 0.1 to be safe, so it depends on your bankroll. If you want other tips, have a faucet for your site, do a few giveaways and people will come to your site

Faucets and giveaways bring people to your site but they are not the people that are going to make the site a profitable site. You are right about the bankroll you will have to know what your own bankroll is to then know what to keep the casino max profit at so you can always pay your winners.

I am really not sure if you need a license because the legally grey area, I would go with no with bitcoin casino's you don't need a license but 100% you will in future so would probably be best to start with one imo and be different to all the others  

I have a tip and that is you need to be able to fund a big advertising push once your site is live and working with nice deposit bonuses to attract the right players.

[x128]

Your bankroll should be high, but that depends on what your bankroll is, if you have only 10 btc, you would have to make the max profit of your casino something around 0.1 to be safe, so it depends on your bankroll. If you want other tips, have a faucet for your site, do a few giveaways and people will come to your site

Faucets and giveaways bring people to your site but they are not the people that are going to make the site a profitable site. You are right about the bankroll you will have to know what your own bankroll is to then know what to keep the casino max profit at so you can always pay your winners.

I am really not sure if you need a license because the legally grey area, I would go with no with bitcoin casino's you don't need a license but 100% you will in future so would probably be best to start with one imo and be different to all the others  

I have a tip and that is you need to be able to fund a big advertising push once your site is live and working with nice deposit bonuses to attract the right players.

Thank you very much for the reply sir. Casino licenses in countries like Panama cost $60k/year AFAIK. In countries like US and all, its way more than that.

[NLNico]

To calculate the max profit you can risk without getting broke ("risk of ruin"), generally the kelly criterion is being used. Truthfully I personally do not know the real details of this complex theory/formula :> But generally "0.5 - 1 times house edge is being used". So if your bankroll is 10 available coins and your house edge is 1%, you can risk 0.05 - 0.1 max profit per bet. If a player is lucky and you have 9 coins left, this should change to 0.045 - 0.09. You can use 0.5x or 1x depending on what you are comfortable with.

Is 10 btc bankroll enough? Well it depends if you think players are fine with a 0.05 - 0.1 max profit (based on 1% edge.)

[ClamCoin]

Of course u need a kind if license, so people would know that u are legit!

[blumangroup]

Your bankroll should be high, but that depends on what your bankroll is, if you have only 10 btc, you would have to make the max profit of your casino something around 0.1 to be safe, so it depends on your bankroll. If you want other tips, have a faucet for your site, do a few giveaways and people will come to your site

Faucets and giveaways bring people to your site but they are not the people that are going to make the site a profitable site. You are right about the bankroll you will have to know what your own bankroll is to then know what to keep the casino max profit at so you can always pay your winners.

I am really not sure if you need a license because the legally grey area, I would go with no with bitcoin casino's you don't need a license but 100% you will in future so would probably be best to start with one imo and be different to all the others  

I have a tip and that is you need to be able to fund a big advertising push once your site is live and working with nice deposit bonuses to attract the right players.

Thank you very much for the reply sir. Casino licenses in countries like Panama cost $60k/year AFAIK. In countries like US and all, its way more than that.

No problem at all   I have just remembered I have a friend who is based in Vegas and he is not running from there for the reasons you state. I will skype him this morning and I will pm you with his location and hope that helps. OOooo that license is expensive no wonder it is normally conveniently looked past lol  

[x128]

To calculate the max profit you can risk without getting broke ("risk of ruin"), generally the kelly criterion is being used. Truthfully I personally do not know the real details of this complex theory/formula :> But generally "0.5 - 1 times house edge is being used". So if your bankroll is 10 available coins and your house edge is 1%, you can risk 0.05 - 0.1 max profit per bet. If a player is lucky and you have 9 coins left, this should change to 0.045 - 0.09. You can use 0.5x or 1x depending on what you are comfortable with.

Is 10 btc bankroll enough? Well it depends if you think players are fine with a 0.05 - 0.1 max profit (based on 1% edge.)

Well, so I guess I'll need at least 100 BTC to get it started. And how do I figure my house edge out? Thank you.

Of course u need a kind if license, so people would know that u are legit!

Certification by a 3rd party you mean?

Your bankroll should be high, but that depends on what your bankroll is, if you have only 10 btc, you would have to make the max profit of your casino something around 0.1 to be safe, so it depends on your bankroll. If you want other tips, have a faucet for your site, do a few giveaways and people will come to your site

Faucets and giveaways bring people to your site but they are not the people that are going to make the site a profitable site. You are right about the bankroll you will have to know what your own bankroll is to then know what to keep the casino max profit at so you can always pay your winners.

I am really not sure if you need a license because the legally grey area, I would go with no with bitcoin casino's you don't need a license but 100% you will in future so would probably be best to start with one imo and be different to all the others 

I have a tip and that is you need to be able to fund a big advertising push once your site is live and working with nice deposit bonuses to attract the right players.

Thank you very much for the reply sir. Casino licenses in countries like Panama cost $60k/year AFAIK. In countries like US and all, its way more than that.

No problem at all  I have just remembered I have a friend who is based in Vegas and he is not running from there for the reasons you state. I will skype him this morning and I will pm you with his location and hope that helps. OOooo that license is expensive no wonder it is normally conveniently looked past lol 

Thanks again! Your friend runs an online casino?

[ClamCoin]

To calculate the max profit you can risk without getting broke ("risk of ruin"), generally the kelly criterion is being used. Truthfully I personally do not know the real details of this complex theory/formula :> But generally "0.5 - 1 times house edge is being used". So if your bankroll is 10 available coins and your house edge is 1%, you can risk 0.05 - 0.1 max profit per bet. If a player is lucky and you have 9 coins left, this should change to 0.045 - 0.09. You can use 0.5x or 1x depending on what you are comfortable with.

Is 10 btc bankroll enough? Well it depends if you think players are fine with a 0.05 - 0.1 max profit (based on 1% edge.)

Well, so I guess I'll need at least 100 BTC to get it started. And how do I figure my house edge out? Thank you.

Of course u need a kind if license, so people would know that u are legit!

Certification by a 3rd party you mean?

Your bankroll should be high, but that depends on what your bankroll is, if you have only 10 btc, you would have to make the max profit of your casino something around 0.1 to be safe, so it depends on your bankroll. If you want other tips, have a faucet for your site, do a few giveaways and people will come to your site

Faucets and giveaways bring people to your site but they are not the people that are going to make the site a profitable site. You are right about the bankroll you will have to know what your own bankroll is to then know what to keep the casino max profit at so you can always pay your winners.

I am really not sure if you need a license because the legally grey area, I would go with no with bitcoin casino's you don't need a license but 100% you will in future so would probably be best to start with one imo and be different to all the others 

I have a tip and that is you need to be able to fund a big advertising push once your site is live and working with nice deposit bonuses to attract the right players.

Thank you very much for the reply sir. Casino licenses in countries like Panama cost $60k/year AFAIK. In countries like US and all, its way more than that.

No problem at all  I have just remembered I have a friend who is based in Vegas and he is not running from there for the reasons you state. I will skype him this morning and I will pm you with his location and hope that helps. OOooo that license is expensive no wonder it is normally conveniently looked past lol 

Thanks again! Your friend runs an online casino?

That is possible, but if it is possible that u also get an other certification. Like get https domain. And get some good reviews from good websites.

[NLNico]

To calculate the max profit you can risk without getting broke ("risk of ruin"), generally the kelly criterion is being used. Truthfully I personally do not know the real details of this complex theory/formula :> But generally "0.5 - 1 times house edge is being used". So if your bankroll is 10 available coins and your house edge is 1%, you can risk 0.05 - 0.1 max profit per bet. If a player is lucky and you have 9 coins left, this should change to 0.045 - 0.09. You can use 0.5x or 1x depending on what you are comfortable with.

Is 10 btc bankroll enough? Well it depends if you think players are fine with a 0.05 - 0.1 max profit (based on 1% edge.)

Well, so I guess I'll need at least 100 BTC to get it started. And how do I figure my house edge out? Thank you.

That is a bit of a strange question TBH This should be already in your provably fair calculation.

If you do a coin flip, both sides have 1/2=0.5 chance of winning. This means the casino should just breakeven in the long term. Now a site with 1% edge, the player has: 1/2*0.99 = 0.495 odds to win 2x. A site with 2% edge, the player has: 1/2*0.98 = 0.49 odds to win 2x. Etc. Basically it makes sure the casino makes a profit in the long term. These days in the bitcoin gambling community just a 1% house edge is the standard (which is low compared to traditional casinos.)

So yeh, I think you should probably have 1% house edge but it depends on your game.