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

[OgNasty]

I definitely didn’t discover Bitcoin through gambling. I would say that I discovered that Bitcoin lacks use cases and since I love playing with it so much I went out trying to discover use cases for it. Gambling is one of the oldest and most common uses for Bitcoin, so I have spent some time utilizing it for entertainment.

[rdluffy]

At that exact moment, 69% said no in the poll, including me.
I thought there would be more people who learned about cryptocurrencies because of betting.

I learned about crypto because of ETH mining, and I believe there must be more people like me

Anyway, I started betting a few years ago, before I learned about crypto in 2017, but it was because of crypto that I bet more and regularly

[Moreno233]

I know about Bitcoin a lot time before I know about crypto casinos. When j learnt they it can be used to make deposit in casino, after learning about casinos, it became more interesting to me than it was. Bitcoin have come to make life easy and comfortable for a lot of people as it has found application in many areas.

[moneystery]

I didn't learn about Bitcoin through gambling, but rather by seeing it online and becoming interested in learning about it. My gambling experience predates my experience with Bitcoin.
I started with regular gambling and then learned about crypto gambling through this forum. I never thought you could gamble with your own assets before, but with the increasing number of gambling operators on this forum, I became interested in gambling on crypto gambling platforms, and that's how it's continued to this day.

[nakamura12]

I know about Bitcoin is because of my brother in law when he said that I can earn money and there are other opportunities that I can grab. Even though I know about the forum from someone else but still it lets me know about that there are some information that I haven't know in this forum and one of it is casinos which is how I know about casinos.

[AmoreJaz]

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.

Gambling may not be the gateway to crypto for most, but I believe, those old casinos like freebitco and primedice were the reasons why a lot got into crypto. As I remember, I learned freebitco before I used most of those popular crypto exchanges. It may not be the reason why get involved with crypto, but I guess, casinos played an important role in sustaining the interest of people in crypto.
Just like in this forum, users are interested or continue to be interested because of the presence of casinos. Gone are the days that people invest in those new alt projects. Because a lot got burned on those investment. They are now looking for other aspects of crypto investment. But amidst of it,  up until now, the increasing number of casinos and bookies are still very visible in the forum.

[Taskford]

I definitely didn’t discover Bitcoin through gambling. I would say that I discovered that Bitcoin lacks use cases and since I love playing with it so much I went out trying to discover use cases for it. Gambling is one of the oldest and most common uses for Bitcoin, so I have spent some time utilizing it for entertainment.

Yeah usually new folk might discover this from those casino but I believe there's few of them discover due to the influence of this platform.

But I believe that majority of people in this space knows first Bitcoin before they know that this is available to be used on those casinos.

Gambling acceptance on Bitcoin / cryptocurrencies came out when Bitcoin gain popularity and this platform just adapt the payment methods, because the casino owners that they can make everything more convenient then gather lots of profit especially if they can include this to their deposit and withdrawal options.

[Davidvictorson]

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?

Gambling played a major role when I started to use bitcoin. On those lucky days, it was one of the reasons why I was able to accumulate some bitcoins. It was also one of the reasons why I continue to have bitcoin and other crypto because of the ease it brought in deposit and withdrawal. To put it in perspective, I found bitcoin first before online gambling but online gambling played a role in accumulating more bitcoins, It is a healthy relationship if you ask me.

[PX-Z]

No, from a college student point of view, my only reason that time is to earn spare online, and that's how i encountered bitcoin. Along the way, i found out affiliation as a way to earn too and got introduced crypto gambling since it's the highest paying as an affiliate. Then tried it due to so many contest and signature campaigns here that payment is sent to the casino account.

[Patikno]

I'm interesting how much gambling played a role in the adoption of cryptocurrencies by the population of this forum.

So I started a poll as I haven't found earlier ones about this topic (there is a somewhat related thread, but it doesn't include a poll). I know that early gambling platforms like SatoshiDice drove a lot of people into Bitcoin, like written here, but I would be interested in the more recent tendencies.

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.)

I don't think so, because I started interacting with or using crypto when I was actively seeking financial resources online as far as I remembered, and I also started to connect with crypto, especially Bitcoin. So, I don't think gambling plays a role in crypto adoption for me personally, and so, I am voting "NO" for this poll. I hope this vote is useful for surveys, or discussions regarding to this in the future.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

I'm interesting how much gambling played a role in the adoption of cryptocurrencies by the population of this forum.

So I started a poll as I haven't found earlier ones about this topic (there is a somewhat related thread, but it doesn't include a poll). I know that early gambling platforms like SatoshiDice drove a lot of people into Bitcoin, like written here, but I would be interested in the more recent tendencies.

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.)

Gambling wasn't the reason I discovered bitcoin, what made me discover bitcoin back then in late 2015 was MMM, I want to assume that we all know what this is...

MMM was a very popular ponzi scheme back then in 2015, it was so popular across alot of countries, there were different versions of the ponzi scheme and here in my country, I initially joined one that was paying in my country's local currency, later, I discovered there was another version of the site known as Mmm-united that was paying in bitcoin and paying higher, that is, instead of the 30% every month, mmm-united was paying 100% every 30 days.
I got interested in this version of mmm and started to try to find out what bitcoin was, this was how I came across bitcoin.

Well, it's still as good as i came across bitcoin through gambling anyway, because mmm was nothing other than gambling and alot of people who got in involved in it eventually lost money..

[lovesmayfamilis]

I learned about Bitcoin a long time ago, well before I even heard about the forum. At the time, I was offered to pay for some services with it. The fact is, I knew nothing about it, only saw a lot of zeros, and so I didn't delve into its further uses. Perhaps if I'd learned a little more about it, at least that I could play in a casino, I would have definitely agreed and played. However, online gambling only recently became a passion for me, after spending some time on the forum. I started trying it out here on the forum out of curiosity, and naturally, I learned about crypto first by coming here and spending some time trying to play with crypto.

[pancelot]

I'm interesting how much gambling played a role in the adoption of cryptocurrencies by the population of this forum.

So I started a poll as I haven't found earlier ones about this topic (there is a somewhat related thread, but it doesn't include a poll). I know that early gambling platforms like SatoshiDice drove a lot of people into Bitcoin, like written here, but I would be interested in the more recent tendencies.

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.)

Early on, platforms such as SatoshiDice were a primary inducement for adoption of Bitcoin due to their portrayal of immediate, censorship-resistant transactions. Nowadays, though, gambling is no longer a primary inducer; mass adoption primarily results from trading, stablecoins, remittances, and the overall DeFi/NFT set. In summary, gambling played a key role early on, but it is not now the primary inducer of crypto adoption.

[panjul07]

I have to admit that online gambling world is the one that brought me into bitcoin/crypto and I believe I have shared my story few times in this forum.
Long short story, I was like an addicted fiat online poker game more than 10 years ago (2012-2013) and there was someone who told me about new poker site but using bitcoin as the payment method.
So the answer is clear that gambling is the one that lead me to know about bictoin/crypto currencies, perhaps I wont know about bitcoin if I was not someone who like to play poker every single day LOL.

[Frankolala]

I have started gambling since ten years ago when I graduated from high school. I came to know about bitcoin before joining this forum but I didn't know that it can be used for gambling because I have little knowledge about bitcoin. It was in this forum that I gamble with bitcoin for the first time in my life and I appreciate that because crypto casinos look more funky and entertaining than my local fiat online casino.

[peter0425]

I'm interesting how much gambling played a role in the adoption of cryptocurrencies by the population of this forum.

I am pretty sure that during the first years of cryptocurrencies, it was used in gambling casinos that were not even that big yet. They probably were not registered that is why it was safer to use cryptocurrencies at that time. And to be fair until now. But nowadays, even in registered casinos nowadays there are cryptocurrencies being welcomed in those platforms.

[Die_empty]

I have started gambling since ten years ago when I graduated from high school. I came to know about bitcoin before joining this forum but I didn't know that it can be used for gambling because I have little knowledge about bitcoin. It was in this forum that I gamble with bitcoin for the first time in my life and I appreciate that because crypto casinos look more funky and entertaining than my local fiat online casino.

I knew about Bitcoin when some people were promoting shitcoins in my neighbourhood. Many people lost money because they were tricked that they were investing in Bitcoin, when they were just buying a pump and dump coin. I never knew there was anything like crypto casinos until I joined this forum. So it was not gambling that made me discover Bitcoin. I think there was a time when Bitcoin was mainly used for gambling. At that time many people knew Bitcoin through gambling.  

[d5000]

Thanks for your responses so far. For a big majority of the poll participants, gambling wasn't the reason to adopt crypto, but for a significant minority (more than 25%) it was one of the reasons.

These are the results as of now (to "freeze" the result as of 9-21-2025 17:00 UTC while keeping the poll open):

- Yes, it was the main reason: 5 (11.4%)
- Yes, it was one reason among others: 7 (15.9%)
- No: 31 (70.5%)
- Don't know: 1 (2.3%)
- Total participants: 44

In hindsight, I perhaps should have one more option: people who were already gambling before they discovered Bitcoin, and continued to do so when they started to use cryptocurrencies. But I will not change the poll. I'm curious if the tendency still changes.

[Mayor of ogba]

I had started gambling even before Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin, but gambling wasn't the reason I discovered Bitcoin. I discovered Bitcoin through my brother, who introduced me to Bitcoin, and ever since I knew about Bitcoin, I started learning about Bitcoin, and I discovered that Bitcoin is a good asset to invest in and hold for the long term.

[Julien_Olynpic]

I discovered gambling before Bitcoin. But when I learned about Bitcoin, I had no desire to use it for gambling. Of course, I know that Dice played a big role in Bitcoin's early adoption. It became popular precisely because it demonstrated the potential use cases for Bitcoin. Perhaps before, Bitcoin was viewed as a useless toy, incapable of even playing the most basic games. And it turns out that Bitcoin is very well suited for gaming. But now there are more interesting coins for gaming, with lower fees and faster confirmation times.