Gambling is one of the oldest of all human pastimes, with evidence pointing to gambling style games having been played in Ancient China around 2300 BC, and as the amount to be gambled on the World Cup in Russia this summer expected to be £2.5 billion with online sportsbook giant Betfair alone this shows that it is still as popular as ever.
This flies in the face of what many believed would happen due to the ever-increasing regulation from gambling license issuers around the globe and, as ever, the evolution of the industry is one of the big causes for the growth of the number of users and volumes spent.
Until recently, the biggest evolution that the industry had made was the move away from desktop and laptop computers to mobile devices through mobile websites and then apps. As of right now, around the world, more than five billion people have access to a mobile connection and the majority of these people can place sports bets or play poker and casino games wherever they are, even if they are on the go, thanks to their smartphone devices. With the number of smartphones being produced and purchased in recent years, this figure is sure to continue to grow too.
The ability to use mobile devices to gamble has boosted the industry, but the gambling industry is not known for resting on its laurels and in its new iteration it has, instead of evolving, chosen to go with a revolutionary change. This new change is Bitcoin gambling.
How is Bitcoin gambling revolutionary?
Bitcoin gambling has been mainly limited to casino slot games since its inception and this is due to the style of games available fitting in perfectly with the ethos of Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. These revolutionary changes can be broken down into the following categories.
Provably fair – It is human nature to be skeptical about things and to question them, and gamblers are one of the groups of people that are the most inquisitive. There have been numerous situations down the years that have caused them to question almost every aspect of the gambling industry – from bet results to withdrawals being held by operators and the rigging of games – with the Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker scandal being the most well-known. The best part of the new revolution in gambling is that many casinos offering Bitcoin gambling have inbuilt features to prevent any mistrust from the player’s side.
These features are Provably Fair systems which are based on cryptographic hash functions that are added to the standard random number generation software used for determining outcomes of spins on slots and online table games. The hash function acts as a marker for each individual game round and once the player has chosen their input for the game round – such as selecting a number on the roulette wheel – then played the round, the marker, player input and the results are displayed so that the player can compare the information from before and after the spin. This allows players to ensure that the game result is legitimate, therefore being provably fair and promoting Bitcoin gambling ahead of live and online fiat currency gambling.
Completely unrestricted – The online gambling industry is becoming more and more regulated meaning that online gambling companies require many difference licenses to be able to operate effectively around the globe. The benefit of Bitcoin gambling is that with the complete anonymity that this cryptocurrency provides coupled with the fact that the crypto is not tied to any government or bank anyone can use their Bitcoins to gamble at from anywhere in the world without having to worry about being restricted by location on the planet or from where their funds originated.
Safe and secure – Going hand in hand with the last section, as Bitcoin is completely decentralised and not tied to any government or country then should something similar to the Full Tilt Poker Black Friday situation, where the US government locked the company’s funds and shut down their website, ever occur again then players will be completely confident that their deposited currency cannot be held by anyone and will be freely available to be returned to them.
Less information needed – As all information regarding Bitcoin transactions are stored and transparently available within the blockchain there is less need for personal information with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies compared to their fiat counterparts. As a result of this, the account creation, deposit and withdrawal processes on these casinos are far faster and much more user-friendly than for either fiat currency only or hybrid casinos and sportsbooks. Add to this the lack of personal data provided for signing up to Bitcoin only casinos which provides far more control over your own personal data and players will know that they can have far more trust in all aspects of their gambling, rather than just the legitimacy of their gameplay.
All these points make Bitcoin gambling the choice to make when it comes to deciding where to place your sports bets or play your favourite slots as blockchain technology and Bitcoin – as well as the other cryptocurrencies of Litecoin and Ethereum that are widely accepted by gambling companies – as you know that your funds are safe and secure as well as your game results being 100% verifiable and trusted.
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