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Ray Sze, the head of games at Bitcoin.com, has been in the gaming industry for over a decade and has a wealth of knowledge in the field.
Gambling has a long history and has been practiced by humans for millennia. Religion, love, and sports are all regular institutions in our lives, and so has it been along the way. The random outcomes of a dice game or a roulette wheel have both confirmed and demolished a large number of people’s hopes and dreams. This phenomenon, however, has a reason, and it is known as the Gambler’s Fallacy. This logical foundation is deeply embedded in the human psyche, which is one of the primary reasons why the gambling industry thrives today — just as it did in Babylon.
Gambling, on the other hand, is a very different phenomenon in modern times than it was in the past. Illegal sports betting in the United States totaled $149 billion in 2015, and online casinos are earning profits comparable to their physical counterparts on the Las Vegas strip.
The same proclivity for gambling that gave rise to hotbeds of underground casinos in the first place is what has made gambling havens like Monaco and Macau so successful on the international stage.
On the other hand, the world of online gambling is where the industry is most likely to continue its explosive growth. One cannot openly make or lose a fortune at a real-life card table in the same way that one once could. Poker celebrities continue to emerge from the illustrious online poker circles, making their debuts at world championships hosted by MGM and The Venetian. And, as online gaming grows in popularity, cryptocurrencies are poised to play an important role in its expansion.
An Already-Changing Environment
A quick glance at some of the most popular online gambling sites, such as Bovada, reveals that these sites have already begun to accept cryptocurrency payments.
Before bitcoin, for example, websites that offered online gambling were frequently required to make payouts to winners in the form of cashier’s checks sent via regular mail or chargebacks to the user’s credit or debit card. In the year 2020, paying someone with a cashier’s check is the slowest method, and it is clearly not ideal. Chargebacks to cards were popular for a time, but they exposed Americans (who were illegally gambling online) to the whims of their banks and left a trail of breadcrumbs for authorities investigating online platforms. Chargebacks were popular for a time, but they exposed Americans to the whims of their banks.
Here comes bitcoin
Bitcoin is accepted at almost all of the major online gaming sites that have been in operation since the early 2000s and have earned their stripes. It makes payments faster, more anonymous, and less expensive while also reducing the bookie’s (i.e., the platform’s) regulatory exposure. Bitcoin and online gaming are natural partners. Furthermore, it is critical to understand the second-order effects of bitcoin adoption.
The gambling industry is driving Bitcoin adoption
People who gamble but are unfamiliar with bitcoin will be gradually introduced to the legacy cryptocurrency as its presence on digital gaming platforms grows. It will advance not because of any ideological attachment to bitcoin, but because it is necessary and convenient.
When it comes to gambling on a website, which of the following is the best option? If you choose the card chargeback option, you risk having problems with your bank and not receiving your refund. There will be a two to four week delay before you receive your check in the mail. Download a bitcoin wallet and use it to receive quick rewards for the rest of your gambling adventure.
The third alternative is without a doubt the one that makes the most sense practically
Because of its ease of use, Bitcoin is increasingly being used as a form of currency. This represents a separate but related adoption curve for cryptocurrencies. Outside of the realm of online gambling, the term “convenient” most frequently refers to the use of bitcoin as a means of evading capital controls, hiding money from repressive governments, or sending lucrative sums to another person or entity while maintaining high levels of security and transaction speed. Online gambling is not included in this definition. Outside of these limited contexts, the general population has a hard time understanding how bitcoin works, and they find using it to be cumbersome and awkward.
The user experience that is provided by bitcoin wallets is undergoing a period of rapid improvement, but in the not too distant future, betting may emerge as a support mechanism that it can rely on.
For instance, digital casinos are starting to emerge not only as potential competitors to the casinos in Las Vegas, but also as casinos that are exclusively focused on bitcoin, such as Bitcoin Games. These online gambling sites place a significant emphasis on the speed at which they pay out winnings, as well as complete transparency and total discretion. Not to mention the fact that they are being populated with new types of games and (in many cases) open-source code that is stored on a blockchain, providing gamblers with the ability to verify that they are not being taken to the woodshed by the house.
What kinds of changes can we anticipate when these casinos start offering more cutting-edge sportsbooks? Lookout. Particularly in light of the fact that the National Basketball Association has only recently come around to the idea of allowing legal wagering on its games.
It is difficult to compile accurate global gambling statistics due to the fragmented structure of the legislation that governs the sector and the fact that many private bookies operate illegally. Despite this, it is clear that the industry operates on a large scale. The expansion of online gambling over the course of the previous decade has been nearly linear, and it is anticipated that the industry as a whole will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 8.7 percent through the year 2024.
This presents a significant opportunity to onboard more users to bitcoin, which is an adoption barrier that is frequently overlooked as we enter the 2020s. Given that it is estimated that 26 percent of the world’s population has participated in some form of gambling at some point in their lives, this presents a significant opportunity to onboard more users to bitcoin.