Immovable law collides with unstoppable Bitcoin casinos

[Imperator]

The UpTake: Anyone interested in Bitcoin should study what's going on with Bitcoin casinos. The pairing may just be the best example of the future of the industry. And now that a Bitcoin casino has sold for the equivalent of $11.5 million in Bitcoin, the industry seems prepared for mainstream.

http://upstart.bizjournals.com/money....html?page=all


Great article.

[universal4]

I do not think this shows that bitcoin is the way to go really.

The developers of SatoshiDice got out while the getting was good.

Rick
Universal4

[LukeC]

I read an interesting article the other day on why Bitcoin is the Myspace of money.

[universal4]

Great find Luke.

created by a mythical uber-geek who goes under the alias of “Satoshi Nakamoto”, which means “slippery electric eel” in Japanese.

I had no idea that his name meant that.

And then there is this quote

when evaluating if a low-cost merchant payments network could work. (Answer: only if all the executives lived on Ramen noodles.)

I guess they might be trying to recruit a new CEO LOL

Rick
Universal4

[Imperator]

I believe it will grow. From an operator's perspective, this is the best thing that could ever happen to gambling payments processing. Free, irreversible, instant transactions with no 6 month rolling reserve and no 10-14 day settlement period. What more could you ask for... Currently ewallets charge you 3.5-4.5%, and some cc processors go as high as 8-10%, I've even seen fees as high as 16%. The fees alone will save you hundreds of thousands or millions of euros per year if your operation is big enough.

[universal4]

Yea, having a payment system in place that many governments hate even more than what is in place makes sense.

Rick
Universal4

[LukeC]

I believe it will grow. From an operator's perspective, this is the best thing that could ever happen to gambling payments processing. Free, irreversible, instant transactions with no 6 month rolling reserve and no 10-14 day settlement period. What more could you ask for... Currently ewallets charge you 3.5-4.5%, and some cc processors go as high as 8-10%, I've even seen fees as high as 16%. The fees alone will save you hundreds of thousands or millions of euros per year if your operation is big enough.

If you didn't think it would grow then I doubt you'd be working for a software provider that is focused on Bitcoins! My standpoint, which I expect is similar to most members here, is that we have no idea whether it will grow or not and whether it will be a serious currency. I am interested in what the impacts are on anti-money laundering regulations and also how the US Government would view operators accepting Bitcoin, given the assumed requirement to demonstrate that you are going above and beyond to not accept US customers in order to have a chance at a license when gambling is regulated there.

Also, if your operation is big enough you aren't paying cc processors fees anywhere near that high. The highest fees are irrelevant, the lowest fees are.

[Imperator]

You do have a point, yes. It is still very unclear how it will be regulated and controlled by the US. And for PaddyPower it is definitely too early to adopt, considering the legal implications it might have in future, and that PaddyPower is most likely interested in the US market. However, there will be at least 20-30 new gambling businesses that will adopt bitcoin in the next year or so. I know of 4 that will be doing it with us in the very near future. And we've talked to a few very high profile online gambling executives who are considering and researching how can they adopt it. Also we are seeing a reent spike in bitcoin gambling affiliate portals the past 2-3 months, which will definitely educate players and expand the market. So in my opinion the future is bright for bitcoin gambling in its entirety.

[universal4]

And as many people that touting it as the holy grail, I guess that is why you also keep seing as many posts using the "bitcoin gambling" scam keywords in them, since I think people are sincerely worried about the currency collapsing as well as the fact that their funds would just vanish.



Rick
Universal4

[LukeC]

I agree that there is definitely a market for Bitcoin gambling - whether that converges with traditional gambling operators is the real question and will depend on how the currency develops as a whole. I think its in a bit of a catch 22 situation where if it is just used for gambling, mostly illegal, it will never develop a full ecosystem that enables it to be taken seriously as a currency.