The legality of crypto casinos
The legality of online casinos has been evolving in the last decades. Basically, we are in neither black nor white but totally gray territory. In general, there are no specific laws to date regulating online sports betting, poker, and online casino gaming with cryptocurrencies such as bitcoins. It is neither officially allowed nor prohibited.
Opinion on gambling with cryptocurrencies is changing. The legality of gambling with bitcoin is still uncertain in many countries because of the nature of virtual currencies and their recognition by national governments. When cryptos are not illegal and gambling is allowed, forbidding crypto gambling does not make sense.
Gaming operators offering virtual currencies, such as for example BTC, ETH, are often confused by the ambiguous decisions of authorities regarding virtual money. Bitcoin has become the most popular decentralized currency in the online gaming industry for the reasons we have already listed in our other article. The topic concerning the legality of gambling with cryptocurrencies is encountered very often, and we try to give our opinion on it.
Key facts about the legality of gambling with bitcoins
Is gambling with cryptocurrencies legal? What laws are in place to regulate cryptocurrency activity? What does it take to open a 100% legal bitcoin casino? Well let’s say that so far there are more questions than answers, but let’s go in order.
Slowly the situation is changing and virtual currencies are day by day being used more and more all over the world. The attitude of different authorities toward bitcoin and other cryptos is also changing quite rapidly. In fact, more and more countries are looking at cryptocurrencies positively and are beginning to discuss the regulation of virtual currencies and associated services based on blockchain technology.
Most countries, however, still do not consider bitcoin to be a real currency, and this in our view is precisely the core of the issue. If it is not a real currency, any regulations affecting traditional currency such as euros should not be applied to gambling sites that accept cryptos such as bitcoins, ethereum, litecoin, and so on.
Despite the above, authorities in the United States can take strong measures against bitcoin gaming sites and even against players who place their bets with bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin gaming sites offer the advantage of greater anonymity to players. Bitcoin payments usually do not require verification below a certain threshold. Sometimes, however, for reasons of anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) measures, casinos may require some form of identification for amounts over 2000 euros.
Some international gambling jurisdictions, such as Curaçao, for example, have for years issued licenses to casinos that accept bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency. This means that they accept responsibility for monitoring cryptocurrency transactions on gambling sites. As a result, as long as the online casino or sports betting site follows the rules and regulations of the chosen jurisdiction, it operates within a completely legal framework. So yes, in our opinion, gambling with bitcoin when the operator is properly licensed is completely legal and thus there is no issue about legality of playing with a generous welcome bonus offer.
