Gambling Companies: First Massive Bitcoin Adopters

[Invester]

Bitcoin developers aimed the creation of this decentralized coin to avoid transactions going through financial institutions. Developers and its early investors and believers never expected that it would be the gambling companies that will start the massive acceptance of bitcoin as a currency. Gambling companies accepting bitcoin have two effects on people:

1. People will think positively on bitcoin because gambling companies are carefully and well-managed kind of business. They are built to entertain people and to earn money in return. And there are hundreds of millions if not a billion or billions of people that are into gambling and many of them are exposed to bitcoin and its potential. Investing companies also have no problem with this as investing is also related to gambling with both facing levels of risks.

2. Many people take gambling companies as something dirty. People might as well take bitcoin as something dirty too. And bitcoin's decentralized form as a good way to evade authorities and government regulations.

[buwaytress]

Were they really surprised though? Casinos were one of the earliest adopters of internet, going online and doing all kinds of digital marketing and developing digital payments even from the late 1990s -- a major reason was restrictive regulations that pushed them away from physical opportunities.

Early adopters of new tech tend to be "fringe industries" so no surprise.

[noorman0]

-snip-
2. Many people take gambling companies as something dirty. People might as well take bitcoin as something dirty too. And bitcoin's decentralized form as a good way to evade authorities and government regulations.

Yeah, that's what people think in some circles to be more religious, more precisely "uncommendable".
The presence of online casinos is enough to help those who don't want to interfere with their authority, bitcoin is enough to complete the effort so that none of financial accounts are related to gambling sites. Luckily, my environment doesn't think bitcoin is anything "dirty" in general because they think bitcoins can only be earned and stored on exchanges.

[P2PECS]

I think it is rather the second option. Especially at the beginning. Now that it is more normalized, not so much.

Were they really surprised though? Casinos were one of the earliest adopters of internet, going online and doing all kinds of digital marketing and developing digital payments even from the late 1990s -- a major reason was restrictive regulations that pushed them away from physical opportunities.

And after a few years of enjoying little or no regulation on the Internet, casinos eventually ended up regulated and having to acquire licenses.

Something similar happens with cryptocurrency gambling houses. They enjoy a legal limbo, but in a few years the same thing that happened with fiat gambling houses will happen. There are going to be stricter regulations that they are going to have to adopt.

[pakhitheboss]

I think it is rather the second option. Especially at the beginning. Now that it is more normalized, not so much.

Were they really surprised though? Casinos were one of the earliest adopters of internet, going online and doing all kinds of digital marketing and developing digital payments even from the late 1990s -- a major reason was restrictive regulations that pushed them away from physical opportunities.

And after a few years of enjoying little or no regulation on the Internet, casinos eventually ended up regulated and having to acquire licenses.

Something similar happens with cryptocurrency gambling houses. They enjoy a legal limbo, but in a few years the same thing that happened with fiat gambling houses will happen. There are going to be stricter regulations that they are going to have to adopt.

Strict regulation and not being able to conduct business easily is the reason why gambling industries are the front runners in adopting new technologies.  Most countries are working on regulation but a handful of them have been able to come up with it. They still are not clear about Bitcoin and most think it is used only for illegal activities. Therefore they themselves spread the fear about Bitcoin.

[theskillzdatklls]

Gambling, like many things, if is done on the volition of a player, is just the free market in action. As long as no one is being coerced into anything, there shouldn't be any moral panic over it. And yet there is. And this causes a black-grey market for gambling in many jurisdictions as a result. People want to play, and yet bad government policy makes it difficult for players.

Bitcoin helped to fix that, like many other problems. Bitcoin's major penetration early in it's adoption cycle was into grey market industries. Now that it has become more mainstream, it's worked it's way into more standard businesses and with time, if it is successful, it will continue in that direction. If it were super successful, it would eventually become a world reserve currency, but it's quite a long ways away from that.

[avikz]

There are some distinct benefits for gambling companies using bitcoin. Majority of these gambling companies are registered in Curacao so they can't legally operate a business using banking intermediaries. Accepting bitcoin allows them to defy that requirement. Secondly, gambling companies can avoid asking KYC documents from their players because they are not answerable to any financial agencies or banks. Bitcoin has done a great job to protect the privacy of the players.

Some people may think bitcoin as dirty because of its association with gambling but in reality this industry is the very first adopters of bitcoin. Can't leave them for granted!

[mk4]

Actually, it was probably the drug sellers/users, right? On the darknet markets. And it totally makes sense — the fact that your money cant be locked up and is pseudonymous.

Seems to be a lot less viable today though, with chainalysis and such.

[so98nn]

Why not, Gambling companies themselves are the big banks with fat wallets. They have huge liquid cash flowing in and out all the time. Crypto is like saviour for them to avoid the taxes and heavy burden of regulatory bodies. Moreover crypto gave them wings to go borderless and have more countries and peeps on board. With this the hassle of using international credit cards reduced and most of them can easily transact with crypto after buying locally and transferring directly online through portal.
However, the regime is not long enough and government already started imposing regulations on them to get KYC of users done and shit. Hope so it does not become problem for them so that we can continue to enjoy that way.

[kryptqnick]

I agree that gambling became one of the early use cases of Bitcoin and some other cryptos as well. The pro is that it's a use case where cryptos are treated as money, not an investment. The con is that it's usage via a centralized platform, usually by depositing and storing some coins in a casino wallet, where the money actually belongs to the casino itself. But still, to this day, I use BTC for gambling and it's my most common usage of cryptos.
mk4 seems right, though, that it wasn't the earliest use case because there were also things like Silk Road.

[Zlantann]

And there are hundreds of millions if not a billion or billions of people that are into gambling and many of them are exposed to bitcoin and its potential. Investing companies also have no problem with this as investing is also related to gambling with both facing levels of risks.

This is very correct, gambling companies have really contributed immensely to the spread of the good news of Bitcoin. They usually invest so much in advertisements and this has made Bitcoin to be known in different areas. In my country exchange companies are number one in Bitcoin advertisement and gambling firms are the next.    

2. Many people take gambling companies as something dirty. People might as well take bitcoin as something dirty too.

In my country, society perceives gamblers as no do wells. They see them as time and money wasters. Although I don't blame the people sometimes because some gamblers in my country see gambling as their main source of revenue. Gambling companies would give Bitcoin a bad name. The people would see Bitcoin as a currency for unemployed full-time gamblers.  

[buwaytress]

I think it is rather the second option. Especially at the beginning. Now that it is more normalized, not so much.

Were they really surprised though? Casinos were one of the earliest adopters of internet, going online and doing all kinds of digital marketing and developing digital payments even from the late 1990s -- a major reason was restrictive regulations that pushed them away from physical opportunities.

And after a few years of enjoying little or no regulation on the Internet, casinos eventually ended up regulated and having to acquire licenses.

Something similar happens with cryptocurrency gambling houses. They enjoy a legal limbo, but in a few years the same thing that happened with fiat gambling houses will happen. There are going to be stricter regulations that they are going to have to adopt.

Sure, yes, but that's beside the point. They took to the internet, then they got regulated. Then crypto came, they took to crypto. Now crypto is regulated yet but by and large, crypto casinos who're smart can and do still actually operate with the flimsiest of licenses.

The serious ones who actually have a physical presence and a proper company like Sportsbet are a different monster, and comply with proper licenses... but the bulk out there actually have a license even I could buy right now for a few thousand dollars.

[The Cryptovator]

2. Many people take gambling companies as something dirty. People might as well take bitcoin as something dirty too. And bitcoin's decentralized form as a good way to evade authorities and government regulations.

All people won't like gambling anyway. So exclude them from Bitcoin adaption through gambling. But we can't ignore the gambling industry becoming a major part of the global economy where it's legal. So definitely gambling industry, especially those who are online gambling adopting Bitcoin. It's a win-win situation. Easy acceptance and also easy for gamblers to make deposits & withdrawals. A lot of gamblers have been using crypto instead of fiat now.

[jackg]

2. Many people take gambling companies as something dirty. People might as well take bitcoin as something dirty too. And bitcoin's decentralized form as a good way to evade authorities and government regulations.

The huge adoption and (what I perceive to be huge) profits of gambling companies in the cryptospace did look to me to be a concerning reflection on bitcoin.

It might say lots of people are interested in gambling from the cryptospace and gambling companies have good ways of managing and sustaining their bankrolls, however it can look to explicitly and initially paint the picture a lot of crypto investors have addictive tendencies towards gambling in a way that makes the industry look problematic (ie by betting until they lose everything).

[suzanne5223]

I believe it will be inappropriate if we talk about the first massive Bitcoin adopters and exclude the early users of the darknet market, and people like Hal Finney and Laszlo Hanyecz ^{who changed the Bitcoin game totally after he bought two Papa John's pizzas for 10,000 BTC before people notice BTC as a means of payment}.
I believe this is what catches the attention of gambling companies towards BTC because they are always looking for a way to expand their business.

[Vaskiy]

Even now people have the same understanding. Bitcoin is developed for the need of gambling companies and are used for gambling and illegal transactions. Slowly this thinking have shrunk compared to the past.

As the thread states, gambling companies were the true early adopters. If they hadn't used it during the early days, it couldn't have got any real-time usage. This helped to keep up the circulation. Following the success of one gambling company the next one started to use bitcoin into their business understanding the ease of access and settlement.

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

1. People will think positively on bitcoin because gambling companies are carefully and well-managed kind of business. They are built to entertain people and to earn money in return. And there are hundreds of millions if not a billion or billions of people that are into gambling and many of them are exposed to bitcoin and its potential.

Bitcoin came to be used by gambling casinos because of the decentralized feature it offers "anonymous transactions", putting us in charge of our funds which has security. However, your statement is actually true because in as much as many loses money to gambling, there have been others who through gambling been able to afford to live a better life due to games won at these casinos, because one of the reason why gambling is been love by many is the ability it gives if lucky enough to multiply funds to x100, x1000 or even x1billion times

[dothebeats]

2. Many people take gambling companies as something dirty. People might as well take bitcoin as something dirty too. And bitcoin's decentralized form as a good way to evade authorities and government regulations.

People think bitcoin is 'dirty' because it is heavily associated with illicit activities and substances (fraud, money laundering, drugs), and not because of gambling. People are somewhat okay with the thought of gamblers proliferating and using a lot of media to gamble, so long as its industry provides something back to the community. It's like accepting something 'bad' can still give out something good if kept checked at all times.

Also, it's just natural that the gambling industry are the ones who will use bitcoin and crypto first, because they tend to want to expand and use whatever available media there is to promote their games and whatnot. Their need for a lot of media to continue expanding never ceases, and they found a way to use bitcoin and crypto and make it so that it becomes big so that people will take notice of it, and hopefully use it to gamble too.

[Wiwo]

There is no doubting the fact that the gambling industry is among the highest bitcoin adaptor even though there have been a lot of misconceptions surrounding this fact and how the general public view this development and the marriage between Bitcoin/cryptocurrency with gambling. But one fact we must also look at is the positive impact of both Bitcoin and gambling on each other. The gambling industry most especially online ones is the major user of digital currencies since their deposit, withdrawal, and bankrolls are all done using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Gambling is as old as the internet and this has built within its network a stable function that aids customers' flow the moving of gambling from physical casinos to online makes it a viable market for Bitcoin and the early adopters are already cashing in on the many opportunities that come with it but again some of the online casinos are AML compliance and will demand KYC at the point of registration casino users in the USA are familiar with this practice.

[BIT-BENDER]

2. Many people take gambling companies as something dirty. People might as well take bitcoin as something dirty too. And bitcoin's decentralized form as a good way to evade authorities and government regulations.

Before the use of crypto-currency (Bitcoin) in gambling, the Fiat was used be it dollars, pounds Euros depending on the gambling site. Did those who hate gambling see those currencies as unclean?

I stopped thinking about What the negativities people place on Bitcoin for things that Fiat has also been used for.
Crypto-currency integration into gambling is a double win for users and player, the use of Crypto-currency can help deal with issues of centralization, slow funding which I have experienced when trying to use bank to fund my account, you can play on multiple site that doesn't need to have root or affiliation to your region.

The use of crypto-currency is very beneficial and I don't see it stopping in the future. But if some issues of gas fee, minimum stakes can be addressed then it would be close to perfect to me.