Though gambling is big business, online gambling is still not as significant as it could be. Its proportion hovers around 10% currently. However, over the last a couple of years, online gambling have emerged as a popular choice among people – this has been approved as well by research company H2 Gambling Capital. According to the organization, the online gambling market in terms of gross winnings, put the global market value at €21.73bn ($28.54bn) in 2012. Interestingly, since the emergence of Bitcoin, the total value of online gambling is expected to increase multifold.
It’s also true that gambling with Bitcoin only accounts for a tiny percentage of the total of online gambling revenues. However, those who have been observing the online gambling industry estimate that as there is huge scope for Bitcoin gambling and opportunity exists to make significant income within the industry, several organizations are mulling plans to start operations. Additionally, with Bitcoin’s advantages in terms of low-cost, speedy payments, cryptocurrency-based gambling, and a number of Bitcoin gambling firms will definitely appear up in the near future.
This news report from Bitcoinist reported Jon Matonis saying that Bitcoin is a “digital casino chip: immediate, private, and irreversible” which “enhances the gaming experience”, and dramatized its overall importance for the industry of online gaming entertainment, pointing out the possibility to avoid chargebacks and payment reversals with the help of the cryptocurrency as one of the principal benefits of the system for Bitcoin gambling. At ICE Conference 2015, he also predicts that in some five years, five of the world’s ten major online casinos will accept no other currency but Bitcoins.
Why Bitcoin is Suitable for Online Gambling?
There are a lot of supporters of the Bitcoin gambling industry who believe that Bitcoin can transform the way online gambling is being carried out because according to them when it comes to online gambling versus traditional bricks-and-mortar casinos, the Internet has the upper hand. Additionally, like the brick-and-mortar casinos, online casinos don’t have to hire a bunch of employees, build fancy edifices or wow gamblers with marketing tactics to bring them in. Internet gambling in the United States operates in a grey legal area and to avoid any legal hassle many of them host their sites outside of US borders in places like Costa Rica.
As H2 Gambling Capital says the global market value of online gambling is $28.54bn, there is a lot of scope for Bitcoin gambling services providers. In fact, an entire industry has emerged around Bitcoin gambling. Some countries have stricter laws that prohibit Bitcoin itself, allowing Bitcoin gambling is a far away an idea for them. Therefore, it is essential for the companies willing to explore potential in Bitcoin gambling business to understand that they are either operating from the land that does not prohibit them or keep their hosting outside the country for safe operations.
For instance, in 2006, the US Justice Department introduced the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) which was designed to quell the rising tide of Internet gambling sites.The law made it illegal for US players to process payments using US banks. However, Bitcoin has emboldened some entrepreneurs, who are openly allowing US players to gamble using the cryptocurrency as they can circumvent some ban. There is no banking at all done on the site; rather, it is a pure Bitcoin poker site, so this is a totally brand new thing for a lot of these people.
Challenges before Bitcoin Gambling
No doubt there are huge prospects for online Bitcoin gambling’s success; however, it depends a lot on several factors like regulation, political will, innovation, etc. Then there is still a high educational barrier to entry as people can transact with Visa and MasterCard without understanding how the payment network works, but to transact with Bitcoin there is still a requirement of technical knowledge.