A new report out of Berlin facilitated by an agency called Transparency International’s suggests that gambling with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is on the rise, especially across Asia and developing nations such as India, Pakistan and other regions. And yet, this report also suggests that most illegal gambling is still not done using digital currency. It’s time to take a moment and investigate why that is and explore what crypto enthusiasts and avid gamblers alike can do to help facilitate the adoption of cryptocurrency within the gambling scene so that we can all benefit from better odds, easier methods of payment and faster withdrawals.
More on the Report
The report on online gambling using cryptocurrencies suggests that in 2018 alone, Asia’s underground gambling market saw more than $400 billion exchange hands. China, Indonesia and Bangladesh alongside Pakistan and India are responsible for most of these transactions. Gambling is much more accepted in those parts of the continent.
The trend is continually growing because gambling operators can avoid issues surrounding negotiating deals with third-party payment providers like PayPal or credit card companies. They can also avoid the fact that gamblers will try to initiate fraudulent chargebacks on their credit cards and take money back, resulting in a loss for the operator.
Still the reason widespread adoption on the gambling scene is taking time because the average gambler doesn’t understand how to use digital currencies to actually deposit or withdraw value, or place wagers and claim winnings.
How to Spread Adoption Among Gamblers
Bitcoin gamblers know how this all works. They benefit from better odds because their favorite crypto gambling sites pay lower fees to merchants, and often register their businesses offshore, which means less of a responsibility to answer to the tax man. So how can gamblers actually spread the adoption and encourage their fellow man to get in on the action?
The first step is to show them how to use Bitcoin. Get a friend or a family member to learn how to open up a wallet. Explain to them that cryptocurrency isn’t just some digital bank account run by a computer geek and that it’s not the same as the digital values that we see in a traditional bank account.
Gamblers need to know what a blockchain is. They need to understand that they are the banker. Not only do they get all of the winnings when they wager and end up on the right side of the odds, they also facilitate their own transactions, can keep their own record of those transactions and ultimately have nobody to answer to but themselves should anything negative happen on their watch.
How Can Gaming Sites Spread The Word?
Here is where the gaming industry as a whole needs to step up. There are some gambling sites that still take traditional fiat money for wagers and also accept a select number of cryptocurrencies. These websites are big names in the gambling industry (Bodog, Bovada, 5Dimes etc…). They count on traditional gamblers who are becoming crypto enthusiasts to take their own initiative in using digital currency instead of their regular national government currency. These operators need to engage in content marketing and education that really takes users step-by-step.
Going one level deeper than that, there are crypto friendly gambling websites that don’t necessarily deal with the traditional gambler. They count on computer geeks who have a gambling spark in them to make the switch rather easily. The problem is there aren’t enough of these people. The Bitcoin gambling industry (if we can call it that) needs traditional operators to bring customers on a journey that ultimately guest them to become both gambling enthusiasts and avid crypto users.
For now, new members of both groups will continue to dip their toe in each other’s collective waters and adoption will spread slower than it could be.