Bitcoin payments at online casinos
Bitcoin offers a number of advantages to both players and casino operators that make it an attractive proposition for funding a casino account. Players that have become accustomed to either high transaction fees or blocks on credit card transactions may find Bitcoin particularly helpful. As there are no bank or credit card intermediaries taking their cut of a transaction, Bitcoin deposits and withdrawals to and from online casinos cannot be blocked by anyone and they are usually free of any fees apart from standard Bitcoin transaction fees which are typically the equivalent of a few cents.
One of the biggest benefits to casino operators, aside from the aforementioned features, is that Bitcoin transactions are irreversible. They are essentially the digital equivalent of paying with cash. There is no possibility of a "charge back" which is what happens when a credit card holder disputes the charges on their card and gets a refund.
Bitcoin's "anonymity" is another benefit, albeit one that is subject to common misconception. While it is commonly believed that using Bitcoin renders a person and their transactions completely anonymous, it is more correct to term Bitcoin as "semi-anonymous". This is because while individual Bitcoin transactions are anonymous, and only identified only by a couple of cryptographically generated addresses for the sender and receiver, the Blockchain that maintains a ledger of all Bitcoin transactions can be used to trace the origin of any Bitcoin funds. Therefore in theory someone who converts Bitcoin back to cash at an online exchange, for example, could have their transactions traced backwards to their point of origin.
Bitcoin's speed of transaction is also one of its biggest assets. Payments made via Bitcoin are received almost instantly. However you will soon become aware of the concept of "confirmations" that can slow down a transaction, depending on a casino's policy. In order to protect against the same Bitcoins being double-spent, the receiver can opt to wait until the network confirms the transaction a certain number of times before crediting your casino account. This can have the effect of delaying the acceptance of your deposit anywhere from 10 minutes up to an hour. If you are unsure as to whether your casino has such a delay and you're in a hurry to get started, ask them how many confirmations they require before accepting your deposit. As a rule of thumb each confirmation works out to be roughly 10 minutes of real time on average.
The difference between exchanges and wallets
A program that keeps a record of the keys used to spend and receive your Bitcoin is termed a wallet. Online marketplaces that allow you to buy and sell Bitcoin for fiat currency are termed exchanges. People can sometimes be confused by the distinction between the two because exchanges often include a wallet account rolled into one package.
However, trusting your Bitcoin to an online wallet service is not a good idea for several reasons. Aside from the risk of loss of funds should the exchange or online wallet go out of business, some online wallets/exchanges do not permit gambling related transactions to be sent or received directly from their accounts. Therefore the best thing to do is run your own wallet on your phone or computer (or even a hardware device for those with significant funds) which you use to transact with casinos. An exchange account should only be used to buy or sell Bitcoin before transferring the funds to or from your separate private wallet.
The process should work like this for a deposit into a casino account, and in reverse for a withdrawal to your bank account (selling Bitcoin for fiat currency on the way back):
- Deposit fiat currency from your bank into an exchange account
- Buy Bitcoin on the exchange
- Immediately transfer Bitcoin from the exchange to your private wallet
- Deposit Bitcoin into your casino account from your private wallet
Bitcoin.org has some good advice on starting with Bitcoin, along with a helper to aid in choosing an appropriate wallet.
Bitcoin as an in-game currency vs medium of exchange
One very important thing to consider when transacting with Bitcoins at an online casino is whether the casino allows you to actually gamble using Bitcoin as an in-game currency, or whether it converts Bitcoin deposits and withdrawals to or from another currency for your use at the casino in between. If the latter, you will be subject to Bitcoin's fast fluctuating exchange rate to and from U.S. Dollars or Euros for example. It is not uncommon for the exchange rate to change more than 5% in a single day, which would be an extraordinary event for the world's major fiat currencies.
Therefore if you want to avoid any currency exchange fluctuations you are best off choosing a casino that supports Bitcoin natively as an in-game currency. This is not without its own challenges though, with major game developers such as Microgaming, Novomatic, IGT and Net Entertainment not supporting Bitcoin denominated play at this point in time. There are even some casinos that require you to have two separate balances in your casino account, one in Bitcoin and one in Euros for example, because certain games cannot be played using Bitcoin.
Beware of fake Bitcoin denominated games
Lastly it would be remiss not to warn of a major problem that has developed over the past couple of years with the rise of Bitcoin casinos: pirated and fake games. As mentioned above, many of the largest and most well known game suppliers do not offer Bitcoin play on their games. This has created a vacuum that has been exploited by enterprising criminal suppliers that have pirated the sounds and artwork of the most well known games in order to create fakes for anonymously operated Bitcoin casinos. These games do not run using the audited random number generators of the legitimate licensed suppliers, so you are almost certainly being cheated if you play these games. We keep an updated list of the ever expanding number of rogue casinos known to offer fake games on our blacklist page here.
More information
Further information about Bitcoin is available here: Bitcoin website