—TechRound does not recommend or endorse any financial, investment, gambling, trading or other advice, practices, companies or operators. All articles are purely informational—
The advent of Bitcoin back in 2009 heralded a whole new era in financial transactions. The intention was partly to take the power away from governments and financial institutions to control currencies, however the reality has become somewhat different.
Rather than becoming mainstream currencies, crypto has become primarily an investment vehicle which has been seen to benefit from huge swings in terms of value and also, unfortunately, similar swings in the other direction.
However, there are some sectors that have embraced cryptocurrencies as a legitimate form of payment and the list is slowly growing. One of these is the online casino sector with more and more operators starting to pop up on the internet. It’s not in every country but Irish crypto casinos are gradually starting to make their presence felt and there are some very good reasons for this.
Potential Benefits of Online Crypto Platforms
On paper, cryptocurrency transactions and online casinos are made for each other. That’s because all of the features of a cryptocurrency dovetail very neatly with what both the casinos and players are looking for in a payment method. Firstly, there’s the guaranteed security of payments. The blockchain ensures that all transactions are genuine and, once committed to, can’t be reversed.
Then there’s the question of anonymity. Because using cryptocurrencies will never involve disclosing personal information about names, addresses or bank account numbers it offers hackers no useful data to steal. Speed of payment is also of crucial importance to online casinos and their players. So the almost instantaneous system scores highly here too.
Ironically, it’s one feature of cryptocurrencies that research has found puts off many young people that may also appeal to gamblers. The volatility of cryptocurrencies means that they are undoubtedly more risky than other forms of payment like the euro, dollar or sterling. But their value can go up, as well as down, so online casino users can potentially increase any winnings they make still further.
The Law As It Stands In Ireland
Of course, this is all very well, as long as you’re allowed to play in an online casino that is licensed to accept cryptocurrency. But this definitely isn’t the case everywhere. Ireland is an interesting example. To be granted the status of a currency by the Central Bank of Ireland one needs to fulfil three criteria. The first is to have a store of value, the second is to have a unit of account and the third is to be a medium of exchange.
Of the three it really can only count the third as existing.
That said, cryptocurrencies are legal to use in Ireland without having actually been granted the status of being legal tender. Despite an April Fool’s Day joke about the government’s plan to release its own digital currency it does genuinely seem to be a welcoming environment for crypto. The long and short of is that today players are free to use casinos trading in Bitcoin and other mainstream digital currencies if they so desire.
The UK’s Position
It’s a somewhat different story in the UK. To date the government and the Bank of England have shown little interest in establishing the legal status of cryptocurrencies, although many individuals have been making huge profits in trading them.
This is one of the reasons why to date the majority of UK-based online casinos have been reluctant to adopt Bitcoin et al as legitimate methods of payments. What makes this particularly surprising is the fact that the UK led the way in creating a legal and regulatory framework around online gambling long before many other countries. It was back in 2007 that the UK Gambling Commission was formed with the remit to licence and regulate all forms of gambling, including online.
So it would be reasonable to expect that they would also be ready to accommodate casinos wanting to accept this alternative method of payment. But no.
Fortunately, there is a solution for players in the UK who want to try their luck in an online casino using cryptocurrency, completely legally
This is because the many Irish casinos offering this option have not only obtained a licence from the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland but are also licensed with the UK Gambling Commission. This effectively legalises the playing in an Irish crypto casino for anyone over the age of 18 in the UK.
While this may seem a little convoluted for the moment, looking to the future it’s likely that there will be increasing acceptance of crypto as a legitimate currency. This will mean the legal picture will soon become clearer, and that’s going to be good news for everyone.
—TechRound does not recommend or endorse any financial, investment, gambling, trading or other advice, practices, companies or operators. All articles are purely informational—
