Bitcoin casinos are becoming an increasingly popular form of entertainment with online gamblers and casino punters – especially since the valuation of one Bitcoin has been steadily rising in 2021 in real-money terms from $20,000 to a high of $69,000.
For the savvy player that means all profits made in units of BTC from gambling at Bitcoin casinos itself rises in value over time, helping to make sure you overcome the house edge.
For example, if you make a profit of 0.01 BTC at the tables, that would be equivalent to winning around $1000 at a real money casino. However, if Bitcoin goes to $100k in 2022, or even half a million dollars over the next decade as some prominent investors such as the Winklevoss twins predict, your BTC will then be worth $2000 – $5000.
Safety of Bitcoin Casinos vs Traditional Casinos
How safe are Bitcoin casinos though? If you’re new to cryptocurrency you may have seen negative media articles spreading FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) over the safety and security of using Bitcoin, even comparing it to criminal activity.
Fortunately, these urban myths have no basis in truth, and as long as you familiarise yourself well with how crypto works, using Bitcoin to gamble with is often safer than using fiat currency.
100% Anonymity
On traditional online casino sites that use ‘real money’ (although the cryptocurrency is debatably a better store of value and inflation hedge than fiat currency) for wagering, you’ll need to deposit using a credit or debit card – in your local currency of USD, GBP, EUR, RUB etc.
You’ll also need to provide personal information to verify your identity and that the bank card you’re using belongs to you, and enter your account number, sort code, and CCV in full.
That’s a lot of private information and financial data that it can be risky to provide to an online casino site – the gambling industry isn’t exactly known for its professionalism, even if the site is licensed and regulated.
Many Bitcoin casinos however pride themselves on being 100% anonymous, as they know fans of cryptocurrency have come to expect that – one of the ideals of Bitcoin is it allows people to ‘be their own bank’ free from government oversight and the monetary system.
On several of the leading Bitcoin casino sites, you are only required to enter an email address when you sign up, then deposits are done simply by sending Bitcoin to a wallet address the casino provides.
Withdrawing profits is also simple – just enter your own wallet address to cash out your winnings in a larger amount of Bitcoin. These are usually instant or processed in a matter of minutes – faster than bank wire transfers.
It is much harder to lose your funds through hacking or your details falling into the wrong hands when using Bitcoin – knowing your wallet address is not enough to access your cryptocurrency holdings, and you’re never required to enter any other details such as your private keys or seed phrase when purchasing anything online or depositing funds at a casino.
Those details are only needed when you’re accessing your own Bitcoin wallet, and you can combine your cryptocurrency transactions with the Google Authenticator app on your mobile device as a form of 2FA – two-factor authentication – for extra security.
Avoiding Scams
One downside to bear in mind is that if you are tricked into sending your cryptocurrency funds to an imposter’s wallet address – they can’t be retrieved, and unlike a bank, there is nobody you can appeal to for a refund. That is one advantage of banks, that they ensure you against fraud – although that is a small benefit when balanced against the low-interest rates of most savings accounts today.
To avoid cryptocurrency scammers always make sure you’re sending funds to the right person – if that’s an individual, check their username, handle, follower count, etc. all carefully.
In general, you should never be sending crypto to a person on the internet, and even with a business such as a Bitcoin casino never send all your money in one go – make a smaller test transaction first.
Also ensure you are sending the right type of coins or tokens to match the wallet address you’re transferring to – for example, if you send Bitcoin Cash (BCH) or Ethereum (ETH) to a Bitcoin address, those funds will be lost.
Many Bitcoin casinos do accept those cryptos and others such as Litecoin (LTC) and Tether (USDT), but they will provide a different address to match those if you choose one of those to deposit with.
To avoid ever inputting the wrong address, you can whitelist addresses you use often, such as the deposit address for a Bitcoin casino you’ve sent a test transaction to, and seen recommended on online cryptocurrency review sites such as InsideBitcoins’ page ranking the top 25 Bitcoin casinos.
Sites like Trustpilot, Twitter, and Reddit are also good websites to find player feedback and compare reviews of Bitcoin casinos.
Conclusion
The anonymity, speed, and investment value of holding Bitcoin make it a useful way of depositing onto online casinos and outweigh the risks of human error when making a transaction.
As a simple way to safeguard your funds simply remembers these steps:
- Double-check you are sending funds to the right recipient
- Remember to use the right type of cryptocurrency, whether it’s BTC or otherwise
- Send a small test transaction and check it went through
- Stick to reputable, licensed, and regulated Bitcoin casinos with positive ratings on online review sites
