Poker Site Buys $100 Million of Bitcoin Every Month to Pay Players in BTC

[TravelMug]

This is something new,

Demand for bitcoin payouts has been rising, particularly after the recent price rally. One of the largest online poker websites, Winning Poker Network (WPN), has been buying millions of dollars worth of bitcoin in recent weeks from OTC desks to meet players’ cashout demand, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing WPN CEO Phil Nagy.

Nagy explained that bitcoin is in so much demand that brokers are charging up to a 1.5% premium. He clarified that WPN does not hold onto bitcoin, adding that the cryptocurrency is converted into fiat currency as soon as possible.

He revealed that his platform does more than 60% of its transaction volume in bitcoin, totaling about $100 million a month. Noting that about 60% of customers cashed out in bitcoin before the recent price rally, he said:

RIGHT NOW 90-95% OF OUR PAYOUTS ARE PEOPLE ASKING FOR BITCOIN BECAUSE IT’S GOING UP. WE ARE CONSTANTLY HAVING TO GO OUT AND BUY BITCOIN — LOTS. LOTS. MORE THAN WE’VE EVEN HAD TO BEFORE.

https://www.techtelegraph.co.uk/poker-site-buys-100-million-of-bitcoin-every-month-to-pay-players-in-btc/

But I'm not surprised that gamblers are preferring btc as payout instead of fiat because of the rising price of bitcoin. I even watch one youtube channel about a women showing her win in a traditional base casino and she blurted out that his winnings are going into bitcoin. LMAO.

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[samcrypto]

I'm wondering if they are still making money and why they are out of supply of Bitcoin considering that there should be an inflow of Bitcoin since many gamblers are losing their money. Well, this is a big thing and I think many gambling site are also doing this, especially those who accept fiat currency on their platform. Bitcoin is indeed growing a lot, that's why many are cashing out and taking profit, they don't want to miss the fun for sure.

[Darker45]

I'm wondering if they are still making money and why they are out of supply of Bitcoin considering that there should be an inflow of Bitcoin since many gamblers are losing their money.

Correct me if I'm wrong but at least the excerpt of the article quoted in the OP does not say that gamblers are using Bitcoin in playing poker. They are making dollar deposits to the site and played with it but then demanded that the payouts be made in Bitcoin. So I guess there is no Bitcoin inflow and the site is earning in dollars and then use a portion of it to buy Bitcoin for their patrons' payouts.

And also the site is offering poker games which means it has regular revenue coming from rakes or commissions. It is not like players in the site are going up against the house.  

[btc_angela]

I'm wondering if they are still making money and why they are out of supply of Bitcoin considering that there should be an inflow of Bitcoin since many gamblers are losing their money.

Correct me if I'm wrong but at least the excerpt of the article quoted in the OP does not say that gamblers are using Bitcoin in playing poker. They are making dollar deposits to the site and played with it but then demanded that the payouts be made in Bitcoin. So I guess there is no Bitcoin inflow and the site is earning in dollars and then use a portion of it to buy Bitcoin for their patrons' payouts.

I'm under the impression that this is a fiat based poker site, but what I don't understand if my assumptions is correct is that they allowed their patrons to withdraw in bitcoin as well? Doesn't make any sense if they allow don't allow bitcoin deposit but instead fiat only.

I still think that they can still make revenues though, this is gambling, so if they can buy $100 millions worth of bitcoin every month they obviously their revenue is more than that.

[seoincorporation]

This is crazy news because $100 Million could hardly move the markets, it's an amount who had an impact. And in another hand, this is a great promotion for the casino because a lot of users who want to avoid taxes on a big win will always prefer to get the payment on bitcoin. So, I hope to see more casinos doing the same move in the next months.

[maydna]

Somehow, I think that is great for bitcoin. At least, it really helps the adoption in the gambling industry, and that makes bitcoin to be known among the people. I think we will see more casinos will do the same thing, and if more casinos will do that, and they buy a big amount of bitcoin, that could help the price move. It is just an example of what happened in the gambling industry, and I guess that in other businesses, when the company follows to use bitcoin, that will make bitcoin more popular. No matter what, the casino will still get a profit because not many gamblers can win from their games. Even if the casino buys bitcoin in a lot of money, that will still profit because the casino can sell bitcoin again to fiat.

[Darker45]

I'm wondering if they are still making money and why they are out of supply of Bitcoin considering that there should be an inflow of Bitcoin since many gamblers are losing their money.

Correct me if I'm wrong but at least the excerpt of the article quoted in the OP does not say that gamblers are using Bitcoin in playing poker. They are making dollar deposits to the site and played with it but then demanded that the payouts be made in Bitcoin. So I guess there is no Bitcoin inflow and the site is earning in dollars and then use a portion of it to buy Bitcoin for their patrons' payouts.

I'm under the impression that this is a fiat based poker site, but what I don't understand if my assumptions is correct is that they allowed their patrons to withdraw in bitcoin as well? Doesn't make any sense if they allow don't allow bitcoin deposit but instead fiat only.

WPN is not a single site where players play poker. From the name itself, it is a network. So it is basically made up of several poker sites. Some of these sites are actually accepting Bitcoin deposits. I was wrong in my previous post. So not only are they offering Bitcoin option for the payout, at least 3 of them are also offering Bitcoin deposit option to their players.

I still think that they can still make revenues though, this is gambling, so if they can buy $100 millions worth of bitcoin every month they obviously their revenue is more than that.

Of course they are always making revenues. There is always a certain percentage or rake taken from the pot of each hand.

[Reatim]

So this Poker site is really mean business and making Money in Online gambling that Big?100million Dollars a month that's a Good amount considering that this is online though comparing to Roobet.com in which wagering 5 million dollars every 2 days still this is one good thing to help bitcoin into circulation.and more adaptation also.

But I'm not surprised that gamblers are preferring btc as payout instead of fiat because of the rising price of bitcoin. I even watch one youtube channel about a women showing her win in a traditional base casino and she blurted out that his winnings are going into bitcoin. LMAO.

i think it is not Only because the price of Bitcoin is increasing but because people now learn about what crypto is since the lockdown happens and people find option to use as trading tools aside from Fiat.

if all this are correct then we are really into adoption .

[Wexnident]

Didn't WPN just recently allow players to be paid using BTC just recently? Here's the discussion link about it
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5291580.msg55637278#msg55637278

Considering that more than 95% are asking for it, I guess it's understandable that they'd buy $100m, or maybe even more worth of Bitcoin just to accommodate payments to players. This is basically still a profit for them anyhow, they're still basically earning money off of players, and with even more players joining in due to the entrance of crypto availability, you can expect that they'd actually be winning off of this in the long run. And as mentioned, most people are asking for it especially right now due to the bull run we're experiencing. It's like everyone that was waiting for this moment is now in steroids, and is basically infecting everyone else, new or old in the crypto scene.

[Lorence.xD]

This is crazy news because $100 Million could hardly move the markets, it's an amount who had an impact. And in another hand, this is a great promotion for the casino because a lot of users who want to avoid taxes on a big win will always prefer to get the payment on bitcoin. So, I hope to see more casinos doing the same move in the next months.

If this continues, government will sniff out this scheme and they will be forced to comply with it, especially European Union, they are comprised of many nations and the laws and regulation that they will pass on will be a problem for this online gambling websites. Considering that bitcoin is still a grey area for most countries, it is still not safe to say that it will be the best move.

[avikz]

Gambling businesses were the best supports of bitcoin during its initial days! Bitcoin survived its initial days because the online casinos supported them! It's great to see that traditional licensed casinos are also following the same line to keep their customers happy! However, a regulatory risk is also there because if a casino regulator thinks that such steps would only increase the risk of money laundering, they the casino might face a hard time because 100 million is not a very small amount. So there is a high chance that players of this casino are using this as a tool to hide their winnings from the government and reduce their tax burden. So while it sounds too good to be true, an extreme caution must be exercised.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

This is crazy news because $100 Million could hardly move the markets, it's an amount who had an impact. And in another hand, this is a great promotion for the casino because a lot of users who want to avoid taxes on a big win will always prefer to get the payment on bitcoin. So, I hope to see more casinos doing the same move in the next months.

If this continues, government will sniff out this scheme and they will be forced to comply with it, especially European Union, they are comprised of many nations and the laws and regulation that they will pass on will be a problem for this online gambling websites. Considering that bitcoin is still a grey area for most countries, it is still not safe to say that it will be the best move.

Yes, and with their admittance that they are buying and continue to buy $100 millions of bitcoin as payment, I wouldn't be surprise if they have raised the alarm of regulatory body in EU and could be looking at them right now. Anyhow, this demand is very big and probably would put a dent on the price only they said they ave doing it thru OTC, nevertheless those gamblers opted for bitcoin might be holding on it.

[bitbollo]

impressive amount taken from only one company... paypal seems has a business around 10-15 million USD daily just for e.g.

however this news could be a sign for the future...
did you imagine if the same would applies even with classic sport bookmakers and online casino?
100 companies could seek on the market 10 billions USD in bitcoins each month! And this is only from gambling.
If the same would applies with other industries this would lead to the explosion of btc price in just few years.

[Juggy777]

This is crazy news because $100 Million could hardly move the markets, it's an amount who had an impact. And in another hand, this is a great promotion for the casino because a lot of users who want to avoid taxes on a big win will always prefer to get the payment on bitcoin. So, I hope to see more casinos doing the same move in the next months.

If this continues, government will sniff out this scheme and they will be forced to comply with it, especially European Union, they are comprised of many nations and the laws and regulation that they will pass on will be a problem for this online gambling websites. Considering that bitcoin is still a grey area for most countries, it is still not safe to say that it will be the best move.

Yes, and with their admittance that they are buying and continue to buy $100 millions of bitcoin as payment, I wouldn't be surprise if they have raised the alarm of regulatory body in EU and could be looking at them right now. Anyhow, this demand is very big and probably would put a dent on the price only they said they ave doing it thru OTC, nevertheless those gamblers opted for bitcoin might be holding on it.

@cryptomaniac I don’t expect them to run into any legal hurdles, because I believe that they would be buying bitcoins and showing it in their books and then paying the necessary taxes on it, therefore I don’t expect the government to interfere because they’ll be happy to earn additional taxes from them.

However if they’re not paying any taxes on Bitcoins, and intentionally keeping Bitcoin transactions off their books then yea, they’ll be in big trouble but since we don’t know how they manage their accounts all we can do is speculate, unless some more information comes to light about how they show bitcoins transactions in their books.

[adzino]

Not sure how this works if they have to keep on buying. Are they making any profit from it? I mean it's a fiat casino probably but allows users to withdraw using bitcoin. What if the casino buys a lot of bitcoin and then the price crashes? They will have to buy additional coins. The price of bitcoin wouldn't affect the players since they will receive the amount of coins based on the current btc value, so even if the price crashes they will receive more coins which means the casino will have to buy more coins to cover transaction.
But, its none of our business. The best thing is they are constantly buying which is good for the market and the price!

[imstillthebest]

they are said to be the largest but never heard of that poker site and i never saw that they make an ann or campaigns in this forum  and im the only one that avoid btc when playing gambling online ? im only nervous and what if my btc will be delayed because many people use btc now . its also regretful if you loose a btc and ill think that im loosing more after seeing the price of btc grew but its totally fine and acceptable if i win a btc    . as per the girl that win on a non btc casino , why dont she play on a btc based casino or she was only trying to promote btc , nice move .

[Reid]

Sadly, it was also posted 5 days ago.
Poker network now gives '95% of payouts’ in Bitcoin

As I also replied on that thread.
This might be all about tax evasion of players and not really about the adoption of bitcoin.
It's all because most of the players are located in the USA and the issue of online gambling legality.

[bitterguy28]

That's around 3 million dollars daily in bitcoin that has been accumulated in that poker site alone,so what more if every gambling areas will adopt Bitcoin (or any altcoins) so maybe the demand will increase more and the value will of course grow more.

This will favor both the gambling world and the cryptonians.

Sadly, it was also posted 5 days ago.
Poker network now gives '95% of payouts’ in Bitcoin

As I also replied on that thread.
This might be all about tax evasion of players and not really about the adoption of bitcoin.
It's all because most of the players are located in the USA and the issue of online gambling legality.

Well so it is,that majority of bettors are from US thats why the demand for bitcoin is that High.

[Finestream]

It's not something surprising, there's over $100 million of bitcoin moving in a daily basis in the market as we can see in CMC but there's bigger bitcoin trading which is OTC that gambling sites are using, I'm happy with this news, this will fall into the positive news for adoption.

In addition, we have seen an increasing number of crypto casinos in the market, and with this reality, it seems like casinos is one of the biggest contributor on the success of bitcoin and crypto as a whole.

[peter0425]

this will only happen for a couple of months and after that maybe this Poker site will circulate the enough amount of Bitcoin inside their company and they don't need to purchase another batch of million dollar worth of Bitcoin.

But for now let us treasure happy moments specially this bullishness that looks like repeating the situation back in 2017.