With the recent rising Bitcoin value, the online gaming industry sees the currency in a different light.
One of the financial regulators’’ worst fears when it comes to bitcoin is that the virtual currency keeps the users anonymous. Once you convert your fiat currency to bitcoin, those funds are kept in a virtual wallet and are assigned a private key. From this point, it is impossible to tell who owns the bitcoins, which protects the owner’s identity.
On the other hand, fiat currency can be traced through bank account and credit card details, so the authorities will always know where the money goes. By monitoring transactions back and forth, gambling regulators are able to monitor casino’s activities and impose necessary regulations. Most of the casinos and gambling sites are operating solely using fiat currencies and those may not be the safest options for your privacy. With bitcoin, this is not very easy to do, which begs the question of whether gambling regulations are being rendered ineffective by bitcoin.
Besides, regulators monitor gambling activities for match-fixing. They can tell if this happened by tracing the source of the funds to the results of the matches. Again, this is not possible if the fixers used bitcoin, making the regulations seem useless.
Knowing the dangers that gambling with Bitcoin poses to the industry as a whole, the regulators are trying to come up with new ways to prevent, or at least control and monitor, gambling transaction with bitcoin. In several countries, legislation has been passed requiring the gambling institutions to screen their clients and establish their identities.
Even though use of bitcoin in gambling is making the current regulations ineffective, these laws are still very much needed. Looking at the dangers posed by gambling through bitcoin, the industry could be threatened if appropriate and effective laws are not passed to regulate the industry.
About Bitcoin Gambling Market Trend
The anonymous digital currency Bitcoin could more than double in price to $5000, claims Standpoint Research.
Now the transaction method of choice for the online gambling sector with Bitcoin-only websites seemingly cropping up on a near weekly basis, the currency traded near $2,600 Wednesday, according to CoinDesk.
Standpoint Research founder Ronnie Moas told CNBC the digital currency could rise to $5,000 “in a few months.”
