The online casino and sports betting industry is incredibly competitive, and it is not hard to see why — it is an incredibly lucrative industry which is growing at exponential rates year after year. The online gambling sector does not show any signs of slowing down any time soon, so now there are hundreds of different online casinos launching every year and attempting to draw the attention of digital gamblers.
One way that online casinos have tried to diversify and find their audience is by specializing their payment methods. In the past, PayPal casinos were very popular as many people felt more secure paying through eWallets than making payments with their personal bank accounts. After the rise of eWallets, casinos which specialized in online banks such as Chime, Revolut and N26 started to crop up and gain notoriety in the industry.
Today, the casinos which are really taking off are crypto casinos which specialize in taking payments from crypto accounts. Right now, there is a lot of buzz about crypto and blockchain technology impacting everything from heavy industry to the fine arts (think NFTs), and everything in between. So, it should be hardly surprising that crypto casinos are also gaining in popularity. However, the meteoric rise of the crypto casino may still surprise you.
Crypto: Currency or investment instrument?
When Bitcoin was launched by the shadowy figure of Satoshi in 2009, it was intended to serve as a decentralized currency that would liberate people around the world from the oppression of national, fiat currencies and international monetary exchanges. While crypto was used as a currency for a few years, it has now become more popular as an investment instrument.
There are a number of different popular crypto exchanges that have tens of thousands of different traders busy at work day in and day out trying to make lucrative deals. Traders buy and sell hundreds of different cryptos in an attempt to make a profit.
Crypto became a popular investment instrument because the exchanges are largely unregulated, essentially making it the Wild West in which you can win and lose a fortune overnight. The diversity of trading instruments is also appealing as there are hundreds of different cryptos to choose from and the overnight success stories of coins like Doge Coin encourage traders to be optimistic and creative with their trading.
Crypto casinos
The online casino industry however has recognized that some people still want to use crypto as a currency – particularly as it is an incredibly secure and private way to pay. Many of the top casinos online offer payments in the top cryptos, such as Bitcoin, LiteCoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ripple and Tether. Gamblers who want to pay with crypto appreciate the privacy and security which crypto affords, along with the ease of use that payment portals allow for.
Some gamblers also enjoy gambling with a currency that has been separated from their traditional bank accounts and is an inherently unstable currency. There is a doubled sense of excitement involved in the gambling process and the money is more officially separated from the user’s personal finances.
The casinos which cater to true crypto fans also have crypto-inspired slot machine games such as Satoshi’s Secret from Endorphina. Satoshi’s Secret is named after Bitcoin’s mysterious creator and is a hacker and crypto-themed game.
The future of online casinos
It is impossible to know what the future holds for crypto because it is incredibly volatile and continually innovating and changing. Very few of us could have accurately predicted that NFTs would become as popular as they did or the rise, fall, rise and subsequent fall of Terra’s Luna Coin for example.
This is an industry which is inherently mercurial, and which constantly innovates, so it is difficult to know what is next. That being said, the global economy is heading towards a recession, climate crisis and energy crisis this winter and previously strong currencies are beginning to falter. This could lead to more and more people choosing to invest in crypto as a currency, rather than as a trading instrument.
If this does happen, you can be sure that more industries will follow the lead of the online gambling and sports betting sector and start incorporating crypto as a way to make payments for goods and services.
