[POLL] Was gambling a reason for you to discover Bitcoin / cryptocurrencies?

[ralle14]

After looking back to where I started, it's an easy "No" vote for me. I only started using Bitcoin back then because I thought I could earn enough with the help of faucets, and at the same time, found a website where I could exchange those Bitcoins for gift cards.

Gambling was barely on my mind at the time, and I only got into it after I joined this forum and kept seeing most of the users promoting casinos through signatures.

[Woodie]

To be honest the memories are distorted as in how it all happened... But if I was to guess I think Bitcoin crossed my path after searching for how to make money online, then probably got to find faucets and then these lead me to the Bitcointalk forum.

Then something that could have triggered the finding of BTC should have been KYC, probably trying to find a non KYC sports book after avoiding bookies like bet365, Ladbrokes and all... I guess in all this thats how I discovered Bitcoin... It happened some decade ago so not really sure...

[Darker45]

Yes, partly at least. So, "yes, it was one reason among others."

Primedice introduced me to this forum, if my memory serves me right. In turn, this forum enlightened me a lot about Bitcoin. Prior to that, my encounters with Bitcoin were mainly in terms of putting in money for a passive and easy ROI. That was before I learned about decentralization and all. That was way back when the goal was to augment income. It was here on the forum where I learned everything--the real purpose of Bitcoin, altcoins, ICO, signature campaigns, and so on.

[rbynxx]

The question is: Did gambling play a major role when you started to use Bitcoin and/or other cryptocurrencies? Or was it at least one factor among others?

There are many possible reasons, for example privacy. Of course you can explain yours in this thread.

(BTW: if there is already a relatively recent poll, I'll close this thread and link to the poll.)

lol I voted yes in the poll but it was probably the other way around. Was more curious about bitcoin before rather than gambling. I think gambling was another way I guess I earned crypto because of the signature campaigns I use to join with but since then I've been fond in sports betting gambling was part now of how I interact with crypto and gambling, the rest was history.

[passwordnow]

I think everyone will remember how all of these faucets that have been started by the casinos like freebitco. And there will be free rolls and other ways of getting crypto through signing up on them. And so, there is the contribution of the early adoption that most of us went through. Casinos have the contribution in our lives when we're able to see it adopted cryptocurrencies and then, step by step we learned, took it from them.

[robelneo]

I already gamble offline, and I joined this forum due to the huge interest generated by Bitcoin at the time, thanks to the numerous great offers and giveaways from online gambling platforms that accept Bitcoin. I became interested in playing online, which is why it's the other way around.

I first discovered Bitcoin when gambling was not yet very active here in Bitcointalk, but like all the others' opinions here, the gambling industry pushed the mainstream usage of Bitcoin.

[Oshosondy]

I'm gambling into before I knew about Bitcoin, although I was only into sports betting, which I always participated in through the physical outlet. But I was able to go deep into the gambling space, have more knowledge, and also learn about the online gambling website model of operation through Bitcoin, and this forum, which is also where I learn about Bitcoin and online gambling services.

I know about betting shops but I did not go there to bet until my brother introduced me to a betting site. I started to gamble on my phone instead but it was all local gambling sites at the time and they only support fiat. In fact, they are only supporting my country local currency. Later I know about foreign betting sites and I joined one. The foreign gambling site also has casinos and I did played Roulettes and Gates of Olympus there until I finally came to this forum to start using crypto to gamble.

[YOSHIE]

The question is: Did gambling play a major role when you started to use Bitcoin and/or other cryptocurrencies? Or was it at least one factor among others?

I once read the history of the beginning of crypto used in gambling, I forgot the source, but as I recall the popularity of crypto was used in online gambling from research based on representatives of the enthusiasm of the citizens Germany occurred around 2019, initially crypto was rarely used on gambling sites.

So the increase of more than 3,864 German citizens used crypto to gambling and Germany at that time known as the best online casino in the world, so there was an alternative crypto to be the best asset used in online gambling.

Conclusion: As far as I know, crypto is rife in gambling around 2020, while I personally know Krypto in 2017 in this forum and I entered here in 2018, Until now, so gambling is not the main factor I know crypto, far crypto is not crowded in online casinos I already know crypto.

[Hewlet]

The question is: Did gambling play a major role when you started to use Bitcoin and/or other cryptocurrencies? Or was it at least one factor among others?

The popularity of gambling has been there even before I knew about bitcoin and the forum though what was the case isn't crypto gambling but just the general gambling that's done with the use of the fiat. I discovered bitcoin independent of gambling. It's just that through some of the signatures campaigns that runs on the forum, we've come to see that there's a relationship between bitcoin and gambling to an extent if not, bitcoin, crypto and gambling are on a different world of their own.

What led me to crypto was more of a desire for financial stability which pushed me to sourcing for financial boosting source and discovered crypto is a good option, the knowledge came independent of whatever gambling stands for.

[Free Market Capitalist]

In my case, that wasn't the case either, because from what I can see, my case is like that of most people. I started playing poker in 2009 or so, and it wasn't until eight years later that I became interested in Bitcoin. The first time I heard about it was in connection with the Mt. Gox scandal, so I didn't even think about looking into it. Fast forward, Bitcoin had been above $1,000 for a while, and because of my economic knowledge, I was interested in it as a way to beat inflation, try to fight the establishment, and as something disruptive.

[traderethereum]

I vote for no because I just earn satoshi from faucet like others and trade it. I know about the gambling site because my friends in my group chat introduced it to me. They play dice and I watched them play because I am on our basecamp. But I didn't expect to follow them playing gambling. I'm just curious how they can win many satoshis from the games so I tried to play dice at home. While I earned satoshi from faucet and traded it, I also use some amount of Bitcoin, Doge, and LTC to gamble. But I feel bored playing those games because I never win like my friends so I decided to focus on accumulating Bitcoin, Doge, and LTC. Sometimes I still play gambling at some online casinos based on crypto but never gamble in a fiat casino.

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

The question is: Did gambling play a major role when you started to use Bitcoin and/or other cryptocurrencies? Or was it at least one factor among others?

There are many possible reasons, for example privacy. Of course you can explain yours in this thread.

(BTW: if there is already a relatively recent poll, I'll close this thread and link to the poll.)

To be frankly speaking, for me personally, I wouldn't say gambling played a major role for my introduction and adoption of Bitcoin to be precise as one of my most used digital currency, because when I first got introduce about Bitcoin far back in 2019/2020, I never knew we had sites like "Satoshidice", where people  could played and were opportuned to win a few fractions of Bitcoin, which actually made those early gamblers have their first share of Bitcoin. But what actually drew me to Bitcoin was actually a quest to searching an alternative means where I could save my investment in a long term, and it won't lose it's value.

[dimonstration]

No, I discover Bitcoin due to the profit potential on the faucet that is highly being advertised to me by my friend that recruited me on Bitcoin faucet.

I just discovered gambling later on since dice game was very popular back then to use as way of increasing the faucet profit because back then faucet value in Bitcoin is high while it fiat equivalent is low so I’m easily tempted to gamble to increase my balance immediately which the result is always loss.

[suzanne5223]

I'm gambling into before I knew about Bitcoin, although I was only into sports betting, which I always participated in through the physical outlet. But I was able to go deep into the gambling space, have more knowledge, and also learn about the online gambling website model of operation through Bitcoin, and this forum, which is also where I learn about Bitcoin and online gambling services.

I know about betting shops but I did not go there to bet until my brother introduced me to a betting site. I started to gamble on my phone instead but it was all local gambling sites at the time and they only support fiat. In fact, they are only supporting my country local currency. Later I know about foreign betting sites and I joined one. The foreign gambling site also has casinos and I did played Roulettes and Gates of Olympus there until I finally came to this forum to start using crypto to gamble.

Ok. I was talking about the time when sports betting was not as rampant, and most people barely understood that they could have their own account on a fiat only bookie website instead of going to their agent.
That's how I started gambling before, advancing into creating and managing my own fiat account. But all this happened before I joined this forum, which is when I understood the use of a crypto gambling website.

[famososMuertos]

OP:
I think that's a classic question. In my case, and to specifically answer your question in the title of this thread, the answer is no.

I've told this story several times, but my perspective is based on a real-life event: I've had a Twitter (X) account since 2009, which is when I really should have gotten into Bitcoin. I only got involved in Bitcoin because of my niece, but the initial discovery was a different story. I don't remember it that well, but I think it was at a Meetup, which was very popular a few years ago.

Naturally, over time you discover Altcoins, and since I was already involved in poker, that niche led me to the casino world through a crypto poker casino.

[radjie]

After looking back to where I started, it's an easy "No" vote for me. I only started using Bitcoin back then because I thought I could earn enough with the help of faucets, and at the same time, found a website where I could exchange those Bitcoins for gift cards.

Gambling was barely on my mind at the time, and I only got into it after I joined this forum and kept seeing most of the users promoting casinos through signatures.

Just like my experience, I first learned about Bitcoin because it offered the opportunity to make money, one way being through faucets. Although it took a long time, I was quite satisfied when I was able to make money. Faucets often displayed ads, and that's when I began diligently collecting Bitcoin, even if the amounts were very small. Over time, dice, roulette, and other gambling platforms offered crypto, making it one of the digital coins available for betting. Even then, there were only a few types of crypto available, such as BITCOIN, DOGE, ETH., and LTC. After gaining a lot of information from social media and bloggers, I slowly discovered this forum. After studying it, it turned out to be one of the primary sources of knowledge about digital currencies; in fact, you could say everything was available here.

[Findingnemo]

When I first learned about Bitcoin, I was still in the mindset that gambling was a sinful act for anyone to engage in. Later, I gained a better understanding of money, economics, and politics through more informed sources than the media, and I came to understand decentralization. Gambling is different path to me, just like most I know what is it and never had a chance to do it most traditionally and then the internet era made it very much possible for anyone with a smartphone.

Anyway I voted NO.

[mindrust]

Not the only one, It was one of the reasons, I can't deny it. Freebitco.in was new, directbet.eu was still operating, it was fun back then. I mean it is still fun, you know, it was new, more exciting 10 years ago. Now everybody knows about bitcoin and crypto casinos. Back then when you were doing these stuff, most people weren't aware of their existence. There were many small time crypto exchanges too. Almost all of them are out of business now. Also there wasn't that KYC thing a decade ago or it wasn't enforced as heavily so, making bets was more fun in this regard as well.

Gambling is the industry that will keep crypto alive no matter what happens to everything else. It is the core real life use case of bitcoin probably. You may not buy a cup of coffee with btc because of the high fees but you can always use your coins to gamble on a casino.

[Dunamisx]

Before now, i have been gambling as at then also hearing about cryptocurrency, while gambling was not the main reason for me to hear about cryptocurrency, i still see it as an influence from the social media and friends who have once told me about cryptocurrency and blockchain, that this is the latest trend of what is happening now in digital life, i being to see also how some of the gambling platforms begin to support the use of crypto for this same purpose and ever since cant withstand it any longer than to also play bet with my crypto.

[₿itcoin]

Yes, gambling was a big gateway for many early adopters. Afaik SatoshiDice exploded in 2012 &  was a huge part of Bitcoin transactions at its peak. It was later sold for 12k BTC if I recall correctly. So it cannot be denied that gambling brings massive traffic &  new wallets to the blockchain. Casinos in the present day, offering presumably fair games & privacy friendly betting services, are still massively popular with both coiners & nocoiners. And I would say that people who gamble often do bitcoin trading too.

So for your POLL I would say that gambling was a major reason for a significant portion of adopters but not the only reason however certainly a strong one.