Bitcoin Gambling FAQ
Bitcoin and Gambling Questions and Answers
Been thinking about gambling online at bitcoin casinos, but not sure whether you want to dive in? If you are a newbie with bitcoin (and maybe even with online gambling too), some trepidation is understandable. Bitcoin can be very confusing for a newbie. You probably have a lot of questions about whether bitcoin gambling is safe and legal—and what you need to do in order to get started.
In this FAQ, I am going to answer frequently asked questions about legal matters, privacy, getting started with bitcoin gambling online, and more. Let’s get started.
Bitcoin Legal? Questions on Bitcoin Regulations and Legality
Q: Is it legal to gamble with Bitcoin?
A: That depends on a couple of things, whether it is legal to gamble in your jurisdiction and whether bitcoin is legal in your jurisdiction.
For example, if you live in the United Arab Emirates, you are in a location where online gambling is banned.
So that would make it illegal to gamble on the internet with bitcoin or with any other cryptocurrency or fiat (traditional) currency.
Now say you live in a country like Bangladesh. That country has outlawed both online gambling and bitcoin, so gambling with bitcoin as a citizen of Bangladesh is doubly illegal.
If you live in Ecuador, you are in a country which has yet to regulate online gambling.
So gambling on the internet is in a gray area. But unfortunately, Ecuador has a ban on bitcoin, so gambling online with bitcoin specifically would be illegal there.
Anyway, you get the idea. Thankfully for every country which has outlawed either bitcoin or online gambling, there are plenty more which have not. If you live in the United Kingdom, for example, or the United States, neither bitcoin nor online gambling are problematic. The same goes for much of the EU and many other countries around the world.
So if gambling online is legal (or in a relatively safe gray area) within your country and the same can be said for bitcoin, gambling with bitcoin is absolutely legal for you to do.
Q: Who regulates online bitcoin casinos?
A: Different countries and states have different rules and preferences regarding the regulatory status of online casinos. Some jurisdictions are quite loose and allow their residents or citizens to gamble with any company. Others require that casinos obtain licenses from them in order to offer services legally to their citizens.
So this is something where you should look up the rules in your jurisdiction. Generally speaking, regulation is a good thing when it comes to online casinos. First of all, if a casino is licensed to offer services in your area, that means the casino is legally operating—and that is good to know. Secondly, regulation provides oversight and high standards for casinos to uphold in their day-to-day operations, which protects you.
There are a lot of online casinos however which are not regulated—particularly among bitcoin casinos. A license of some sort is definitely a plus, but is it a necessity? Not if the casino has a strong reputation for other reasons. But you should use caution when dealing with unregulated websites.
Privacy Questions
Q: Is bitcoin gambling a good way for me to keep my gambling activities discreet?
A: It can certainly help. How private it keeps your activities depends on the site you are using and what kinds of requirements they have pertaining to identity verification.
If all you have to do is sign up with an email address and provide a bitcoin address for withdrawals, you are close to anonymous while gambling with bitcoin, which is awesome if that is what you are looking for.
A lot of sites will still ask you to verify your identity however.
So where that is the case, you will not be anonymous.
You still are being asked to expose less private information, though, since you do not need to share your credit card information or so forth. Choose a site that you feel comfortable with.
Q: Why do I need to verify my identity? Isn’t bitcoin gambling supposed to be anonymous?
A: Again, how anonymous it is depends on where you are gambling.
Bitcoin itself is sorta anonymous (assuming you are using it properly), but online casinos each reserve the right to set their own policies regarding identity.
Some casinos are more than happy to let you remain 100% anonymous.
They only require an email address to establish your account and an address to send you your winnings when you withdraw.
Other casinos prefer to know who they are doing business with.
This is understandable; they are simply trying to cover their bases and make sure they are protected if something goes wrong. Just as fraudulent casinos exist, so do fraudulent customers.
Again, always look up this information before joining a site so you do not waste your time. Verify your identity if you feel comfortable doing so; otherwise, skip it and choose a casino that does not require it.
Q: How secure is gambling with bitcoin?
A: Bitcoin itself is very secure.
It has never been hacked successfully.
A hack of bitcoin is not impossible, but it is quite unlikely. So in general, it is a more secure means of managing your money than a lot of traditional methods.
There are two other aspects of security you need to consider. One is the network you are using to get online, and the other is the bitcoin casino’s security setup.
Your network is your responsibility.
This has nothing to do with bitcoin specifically—but any time you use the internet for financial activity, you are taking a risk if your network is not secured.
So make sure you only gamble on a private, encrypted network that you trust.
Avoid the temptation to gamble with bitcoin (or any currency) on unsecured public wi-fi.
As to the casino itself, choose one which has taken the necessary steps to secure its site as well as the customer funds it is holding. All customer data should be encrypted. Choose a secure password for your account which is hard to crack, and if two-step authentication is offered, opt to set it up.
So long as you are picking a secure, reputable casino and you are taking the appropriate steps to keep your data secure on your end, bitcoin gambling is very safe.
Getting Started with Bitcoin Gambling
Bitcoin is too expensive, I can’t afford one.
You can buy fractions of a bitcoin. Down to eight decimal places.
You do not have to purchase an entire bitcoin.
Q: Where and how do I purchase bitcoin?
Best Bitcoin Wallet for Online Casinos
But right now you do not have any bitcoin. So how can you get started? What do you need to do to buy your first bitcoin?
This is an extensive topic which it would take thousands of words to cover in full, so I will just provide you with the short answer here.
- Get a bitcoin wallet (breadwallet and greenaddress are two great choices)
- Buy bitcoin from a site like Localbitcoins or Bitquick (or even Coinmama or Coinbase
- Send bitcoin to your wallet
- Now you have bitcoin you can send to any bitcoin address you please.
If you want to buy bitcoin, there are many options open to you.
You can buy bitcoin with cash in person, or you can use an ATM, or you can use a gift card or credit card. And those are just a few of the possibilities.
I suggest you visit LocalBitcoins or if using cash, try Bitquick.
This site offers a great starting point.
You can use it to locate sellers in your area, and you can narrow down your search by payment method.
Just looking at the list of payment methods available probably is the best way to get a summary version of most of the possible approaches you can take to buy bitcoin.
LocalBitcoins has a great reputation. It has been around for a while now, and it has a huge user base. So think about using it.
There are plenty of other sites you can use to buy bitcoin as well though, so investigate and choose a route that works for you.
Q: What is a bitcoin wallet and what are bitcoin addresses?
A: You will actually need to take care of this before you buy bitcoin.
Bitcoin needs to be stored somewhere, just like any other type of currency. So you need a bitcoin wallet.
Your bitcoin wallet is like your bank account for bitcoin—or kind of like an e-wallet, except you are using it for cryptocurrencies instead of fiat currencies.
Not sure where to go for wallet services? Coinbase is a popular, well-established site which you can use for your wallet (you can buy bitcoin using Coinbase as well).
Once you have your bitcoin wallet, you can generate some bitcoin addresses.
Addresses are used to receive bitcoin transfers. They are always “to” addresses—there is no such thing as a “from” address.
You will use your bitcoin addresses to receive transfers from other sites (like your online casino when you cash out) or individuals. I will get into this in more detail later.
Q: Are bitcoin casinos scams?
A: This is an understandable question considering that a lot of bitcoin casinos seem to have sprung up practically overnight, and many of them are unlicensed.
The answer is this: some bitcoin casinos are probably scams, but many others are definitely not.
This is true with online casinos in general.
There are some scammers out there to be wary of, but there are also a lot of legit businesses looking for long-term customers.
Steering clear of the scams is not too tricky if you take a few simple steps:
• Check out our list of recommended casinos.
• Read reviews for any casino you are thinking about joining to learn more about their features and whether they deliver.
• Pick a casino that has friendly, transparent terms of service.
• Look up the company which owns and operates the casino to make sure they are legit.
• Hit up customer service before you deposit funds to see whether the company is helpful. Check if they are fast, friendly, knowledgeable, and not pushy.
The bottom line is that bitcoin casinos are not scams by nature.
Sometimes scammers show up in this niche like they do in any other, but on the whole, bitcoin gambling is safe if you make smart choices.
Q: How do I find a trustworthy bitcoin casino?
A: I recommend that you look at our recommended online casinos. Many of our favorite casinos accept bitcoin as a payment method. We have vetted this list according to a number of strict criteria. We have evaluated reputation, bonuses, deposit and withdrawal fees and procedures, game selection, security, customer service, VIP programs, and more.
No casino makes our list until we are entirely confident with it. Many of these we have had great experiences with for years.
Q: Do I have to download any software?
A: That depends on what casino you decide to join and what kind of bitcoin wallet you decide to use.
There are downloadable wallets, but most people use online wallets since they are more convenient.
So you probably will not be downloading anything for that, but it is up to you.
As to the actual gambling, some casinos require you to download software while others do not.
In many cases, it is optional. There may be flash versions of some or all of the games online, but you can download software for superior performance and/or more titles to choose from.
So you only need to download software if you really want to. If you do not want to download anything at all, you can still gamble online using bitcoin.
Q: How do I make a deposit at a bitcoin casino?
A: Once you have some bitcoin in your wallet, how do you actually transfer it to the casino so you can start playing?
Procedures for this are pretty uniform in most cases. You go to the banking page on the online casino, and then you select bitcoin as the deposit method. The casino will then generate a bitcoin address and/or QR code for you.
If you are on a mobile device, you can scan the QR code to send the money. If you are not (or just prefer not to use it), open your wallet and enter in the amount you want to deposit. Put in the bitcoin address of the casino, and send the money. That’s it! It is ridiculously simple.
Q: How do I make a withdrawal at a bitcoin casino?
A: For this, you will need to generate a bitcoin address. You can do this through your wallet, as previously mentioned. Once you have the address ready, go to the banking page of the online casino. Choose “bitcoin” as your withdrawal method and put in the amount. There will be a line for you to enter the bitcoin address. Submit the request and it will be processed.
One quick word on bitcoin addresses. You should never use the same address more than once. The reason is that re-using addresses disrupts your anonymity. Since you can generate infinite addresses, there is no reason to re-use them. So use a different address for each withdrawal you make.
Q: How fast are bitcoin transactions?
A: A lot of casinos promote their bitcoin deposits and withdrawals as “instant.” In some cases, you may experience instant transactions, but oftentimes you can expect at least a few minutes for a transfer to go through. There may be other times where transactions take longer—even up to several days. In most cases though, your transfers will probably be complete in around 10 minutes.
With a credit or debit card, several days is common. Other transfer methods may take weeks. So bitcoin transactions which take 10 minutes to complete are practically “instant” by comparison!
Q: Are there bitcoin bonuses at online casinos?
A: Yes! Not only that, but a lot of the bitcoin bonuses which you will find are massive—much bigger than the bonuses available to customers who are depositing fiat currencies.
Why are bitcoin bonuses so large? Part of it is to attract more bitcoin customers. The other part of it probably has to do with the lower overhead involved in bitcoin transactions. This frees up money for promotions.
Q: Are there any special benefits to gambling at a bitcoin casino?
A: As just mentioned, the overhead tends to be lower, so this can result in lower fees and higher payouts and promotions. Aside from that, I can again cite the ease, speed and convenience of the deposits and withdrawals along with the enhanced privacy and security of bitcoin as reasons to gamble at casinos which accept cryptocurrencies.
Q: Anything else I should know about bitcoin gambling?
A: The only other thing I would mention about bitcoin gambling is that bitcoin is not a stable investment. It is extremely volatile, soaring and plunging in value sometimes in the blink of an eye.
Hopefully this will play to your advantage, but with poor timing, it could end up costing you money. So just be mindful of the exchange rate fluctuations, and only tie up money in bitcoin which you can afford to lose. Hopefully bitcoin will just keep climbing and make you rich along the way, but it is a high-risk investment and should be approached with due caution and care.
Conclusion: Now You Are Ready to Start Gambling Online at Bitcoin Casinos
You probably still have more questions about bitcoin gambling, but hopefully now you are feeling a lot more confident about how to embark on your bitcoin casino journey online. Keep up with our blog to learn more about bitcoin gambling, and be sure to check out our recommended casinos!
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