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Crypto Casinos – Should You Be Wary Of These New Online Platforms /

Crypto Casinos – Should You Be Wary Of These New Online Platforms

Thanks to the relatively recent rise in the adoption of cryptocurrencies, then it's no surprise that online casinos have also jumped on the crypto bandwagon. Though many reputable casinos accept cryptocurrencies, there are others who do so with the express purpose of misleading players. They will offer huge incentives and bonuses. But without any form of KYC, it's obvious they have no intention of regulating and enforcing things like age restrictions or solutions to help problem gamblers.

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Why You Should Take Care Utilising Crypto Casinos

If you’re looking for crypto casinos, then a simple Google search will reveal hundreds of websites. You’ll instantly notice that they all offer huge bonuses, along with free spins and fast payouts. This is because there’s a huge competition to draw the limited number of crypto users into their own online casinos. We should point out that crypto casinos have only been around for the last half-decade or so. Yet it’s important to note that many of them do not have any gambling licenses. Furthermore, you can find them in locations without any form of regulation. Because of this, it’s very difficult to find any data relating to the number of users, the average bets, or even figures concerning both winnings and losses.

Some might say that the cryptocurrency gambling space resembles the Wild West. Whereas others would claim that crypto gambling allows them a more transparent gaming platform than traditional casinos. So today we thought we take a deeper dive into crypto casinos. We’re interested in seeing whether they’re safe or legit. After all, the last thing any gambler wants to do is simply throw their money away without any possibility of being able to win the jackpot online.

The Size Of The Crypto Gambling Market?

As with all things concerning cryptocurrencies, real figures are hard to come by and very vague. To that end, it’s difficult to determine both the size and scope of the cryptocurrency gambling sector. One of the major reasons for this is that there is so much confusion about classification.

Without a doubt, the largest independent database of the global online casino marketplace is CasinoGuru.com. They track around 4,200 gambling sites and their co-founder, Jan Kovac, suggests that around 1,000 of these allow casino players to make deposits using either Bitcoin or Ethereum. These include 22Bet Casino, which accepts a huge number of Altcoins as well as these regular stable coins. He goes on to point out that many of these casinos will be reputable and well-known. They simply utilise cryptocurrencies for deposits. This is because, like traditional casinos, all bets are made in Fiat currency, which they then use for payouts.

Kovac also points out that on CasinoGuru’s database, there are around 250 casinos where you can wager with cryptocurrencies directly. Amongst these with there are around 30 of what is known as “anonymous casinos.” This means that as far as CasinoGuru’s database goes, around 6.66% of the online casino sector is made up of crypto casinos. With 0.7% of these being totally anonymous.

Are There Any Crypto Casino Regulations?

In truth, the vast majority of cryptocurrency casinos do hold a gaming license. But that’s not to say you should assume that they come from the most reputable gaming authorities in the world. You’ll find that the best, including the UK Gambling Commission and the Malta Gaming Authority, are reluctant to issue licenses to casinos which only accept cryptocurrencies. In fact, the vast majority of these types of establishments will have a lesser license from Curacao. Unfortunately, this license is much less stringent. As a result, will be fewer player protection mechanisms in place.

But when it comes to truly anonymous casinos, then things take a completely different road. As Kovac says, “to take full advantage of the anonymous nature of cryptocurrencies and allow players to gamble fully anonymously, without entering their personal information when creating an account.” He also says, “some of them have a fair approach to gambling despite not being bound by any external rules. That said, there are also some that are unfair or outright scams.”

Crypto Casinos: Don’t Play Without KYC

Of course, it’s perfectly true that you can also find traditional casinos to win the jackpot that operate unscrupulous gambling sites which are deliberately set up in order to scam people. This can include having predatory rules and unfavourable terms and conditions. Many are on a constant lookout for unfair means by which they can void a player’s winnings. One of the major problems with truly anonymous casinos is that, in keeping with the equally anonymous nature of the cryptocurrencies they accept, they carry out no KYC verifications as far as the legal age for gambling goes. Or any self-exclusion procedures. Essentially, this means that there is no need to supply any form of personal information, let alone age verification. Just a cryptocurrency wallet address. It’s an unfortunate fact that you can find many social media influencers promoting such casinos to children of all ages.

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How To Get Around Location Restrictions?

Depending on where in the world you’re logging on from, then you’ll find that many crypto casinos may be unavailable in your location. For example, both the UK and the US impose severe restrictions on such anonymous platforms. Having said that, there is a fly in the ointment as far as regulatory needs go. And that is that many players can simply resort to their trusty VPN. Costing just a few dollars a month, any user can reroute their internet connection through a foreign server. This allows the casino to misread the computer’s actually location. Because many cryptocurrency gamblers are comfortable going through the palaver of buying crypto on an exchange and setting up a crypto wallet, then it’s no surprise that they would be well versed in VPN protocols. This would include any form of geo-blocking.

Are Crypto Casinos Fair To Players?

According to Provably.com, the vast majority of genuine cryptocurrencies function on a “provably fact concept”. This “is the process which allows players from all over the world to manually and personally verify the fairness of the games that they’re playing online. In order to achieve this, casinos that work on the blockchain use a special code called the provably fair algorithm.” The general idea is that “provably fair” algorithms are going to be more transparent and verifiable over the public blockchain.

The Types Of Casino Games Matter

Unfortunately, the technology for provably fair gaming functions better with some games than with others. For example, a game like rock, paper, scissors or a simple 50/50 raffle game can be implemented in an approvably fair manner. This allows anyone to see all the important statistics appertaining to the game itself. But the more complex the jackpot games become, then the efficiency of provably fair gaming technology decreases. For example, as of the time of writing, there is no implementation of poker that has been built in a provably fair way. Of course, with every card in the deck hidden, and with the user’s cards hidden from each player, then it’s difficult to implement any form of transparency.

The Oracle Problem

Another sector of gambling that’s proving equally challenging to maintain fairness within is the sports sector. It’s very easy for incorrect or bad data to be fed into the blockchain which then makes the application settle bets in the wrong manner. Or even gives deposits to the wrong users. This comes down to the basic problem that user data has not been verified. This is the infamous “Oracle Problem”, and it’s an incredibly difficult one to solve. On the whole, it requires tracking and finding data from a huge variety of different sources. As well as trusting the consensus among data providers.

Watch Out For Shady Crypto Casinos

So we can see that there is a vast range of different crypto gaming platforms. Some may be well run, with proper regulations. Along with offering such things as age verification checks, as well as protection for problem gamblers. Yet there is a coterie of crypto gambling websites situated well away from any regulatory authorities. They have no interest in carrying out such things as age checks and don’t give a fig about problem gamblers. Their sole purpose is to simply take money from players. And they will use every psychological trick in the book to encourage gamblers of all ages to part with cash. Gambling on these, and your jackpot winning chances drop to virtually zero.

Crypto Casinos: Always Perform Due Diligence

Here at Jackpotfinder.com, we suggest that if you’re going to gamble with cryptocurrencies, then you perform due diligence checks. This should include such things as reading through the terms and conditions. As well as researching the parent company. Be sure that you’re not just reading paid reviews from the website’s affiliates. And finally, if for any reason you feel the website might not be up to par, then simply move on. We strongly suggest sticking with a top reputable online casino like 22Bet Casino. Not only do they accept a huge variety of different cryptocurrencies, but thanks to a proper gaming license, you can be certain of receiving any winnings.