It would be difficult to have missed the widespread coverage that has come out as state after state in the US has liberalized its laws on betting. We’re now at a tipping point where close to three-quarters of the states have legal betting, and more are expected to follow this year.
However, that is only part of the story. In those states, and many nations around the world, some betting is legal and some is not. To be more specific, while you can easily bet on sports in many places, those same jurisdictions are less welcoming to casino gambling.
While 36 states at the last count permitted online sports betting, only seven of those permitted online bettors to play slots, roulette or any of the wide range of popular casino games that are freely available in places like the UK, Ireland or Spain.
But interestingly, there may be a solution in the form of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. As we’ll see, if you want to bet online in the same way that land-based casinos permit in many states, you could have a helping hand in the form of crypto casinos. Let’s look at the details.
What are crypto casinos and how do they work?
As you may already have guessed, crypto casinos are online betting sites that offer a range of casino-style games where you can bet using crypto. The standard modus operandi is that you fund your account from a crypto wallet, or use fiat currency to buy Bitcoin or an altcoin from the casino itself.
The money can then be converted into dollar amounts (or other currencies) for the purposes of betting. It remains as cryptocurrency in reality, but rather than trying to figure out fractions of a crypto amount, you can see what the fiat value of your balance is. When the time comes to withdraw, the amount returns to crypto.
What does this mean in a legal sense?
This information is important for would-be casino bettors because often, betting legislation is written in such a way that you can’t bet in online casinos using fiat currency. However, for good and for bad, crypto is largely unregulated in the USA and most countries around the world.
Crypto casinos are not licensed in any state, but this does not mean they are not licensed at all. The better crypto casinos, such as Cloudbet, are licensed elsewhere and can offer their services to bettors in most of the world without anyone being on the wrong side of the law.
Most of the world?
Yes. It is important to make the distinction between countries that don’t have specific laws on betting or on crypto, and those that have legislated to make one or the other illegal or to restrict their use. These laws vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and it is worth checking for your own country or state what the legal position is.
It’s essential to figure this out before you sign up for a crypto casino, because in the few cases where betting or crypto are specifically illegal, ignorance of the law will not be accepted as a defense.