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Bitcoin Betting Sites & Online Casinos

Bitcoin is a form of digital currency that can be used in a multitude of betting sites these days. The currency works in just the same way as say GBP, EUR or USD, except it’s all based online and you don’t actually have ‘coins’ to physically hold. It is processed through an independent central bank and then the funds are distributed to the personal accounts. Then, just like you would with your native currency, you can transfer this money to several merchants, including gambling outlets.

Online Gambling Sites That Accept Bitcoin

How do Bitcoins work?

The first step to using Bitcoin within gambling sites is to actually buy Bitcoin. You can do this from Bitcoin exchanged and just as you would buying foreign currency, the rates in which you get will differ depending on which company you use. There are now comparison sites that will highlight where’s best to buy and the current rates throughout the market. Due to it still being a fairly young digital currency, these prices can fluctuate massively within a short period of time, so shopping around is highly advisable.

Your Bitcoin will then be stored in an online wallet and can be accessed similar as to how you would access funds when doing online banking. Most exchanges will allow you to create a wallet with them and this often works out to be much easier than moving the coins from different wallets. If your exchange doesn’t offer this feature then you can set up independent wallets through a number of companies, but some may charge holding fees and even transaction fees, so bear this in mind.

The next step is to simply find a gambling site that will allow you to use Bitcoin and then make your deposit. You will likely be asked for your Bitcoin payment address, which is essentially a random number that has been assigned to your specific Bitcoin account. The gambling site will either then allow you to play using Bitcoin or transfer into a local currency.

Advantages

One of the main reasons to using Bitcoin is that players are able to bank anonymously, without having to leave bank details or card numbers on their gambling accounts. It works in a similar way to using e-wallets in that every transaction you make will be different, therefore massively reducing the risk of fraud on your account.

You will also find that both deposits and withdrawals are a lot quicker when using Bitcoin compared with Visa or Debit cards. The process can be automated on both your end and the gambling sites end, meaning the need to human interaction is minimal, which is often the reason why banking using credit or debit cards can take so much time.

The majority of bookmakers will allow you to deposit and withdraw a greater amount as standard when using Bitcoin. At the time of writing 1 Bitcoin currently equates to £667.12 and most gambling sites will allow you to deposit at a rate of 0.01 Bitcoin, which is £6.67, much less than the industry standard £10 deposit that is often asked for.

Disadvantages

The most obvious disadvantage to using Bitcoin is the fact that the number of gambling sites who accept it as a form of currency is still relatively low. It’s a new currency essentially, and as ever with these types of things the integration to the market takes time.

Some sites will require you to convert your Bitcoin when you deposit, meaning that you can only play in a certain form of currency, whilst still being able to bank using Bitcoin. If this happens then they will likely set up their own rates for what they are willing to convert to and from, which as you can imagine, usually aren’t all that great for players meaning it could end up costing you money to use this form of currency.

About Bitcoin

Bitcoin was first created in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, who wanted to create a digital currency and allow peer-to-peer transactions to be made. The company didn’t launch until January 2009 and it was widely recognised as the first digital currency of its kind.

Throughout the early days the company had a couple of major issues, and at one point were running two networks that allowed people to buy for either and then added blocks (coins) to a separate account. These glitches are now a thing of the past, but it set the company back massively in terms of how safe and legitimate this new product was.

It wasn’t until 2013 when the company really started to gain some headway and this was mainly down to the fact that they had got some massive retailers on board such as Wordpress, Tiger Direct, Overstock.com, Expedia, Newegg and even Microsoft. In the same year the first Bitcoin ATM was installed in Vancouver, Canada, signalling the first place that consumers were able to publicly buy and sell the digital currency.

These days the currency continues to grow with more companies – especially gambling related – starting to allow the currencies. However, they have had their fair share of controversy over the years as well, mainly down to money laundering and fraud charges, some of which have been quashed whilst others are still on going.

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