The crypto fad has taken the gambling industry by storm. Cryptocurrencies have shown immense potential in both constructive and destructive ways in the industry. Hence every nation thriving on crypto follow some stringent rules laid down by their respective regulators. To pin a generic attitude of regulators towards cryptocurrencies, let’s find out how different countries regulate the technology across gambling.
There are two ways on how cryptocurrency gambling is done, one is off-chain, and the other is on-chain.
The off-chain way of crypto hambling is the one where online, as well as the physical casinos, support cryptocurrency as per the bitcoin system. The sum is deposited in the accounts of the users from the casino.
Talking about on-chain crypto gambling, it’s done via blockchains through smart contracts that contain a decentralized application. There is also a code for backend running through the crypto network instead of the conventional centralized server. Here the gambling website stores can curb or prohibit IP addresses coming from certain untrusted countries. So while an unknown user is attempting to use these websites, they get plugged up.
Regulatory traditions in Crypto Gambling Countrywise
The established way that most governments adopt to regulate online gambling in some popular Bitcoin games like Bitcoin Dice Game. Accomplishing this over an off-chain gambling casino is way simpler due the innateness of centralized systems. To tackle such prohibitions, users generally switch to virtual servers directing their IP addresses via steady jurisdictions.
There are few countries that have regulations around cryptocurrency gambling. This includes names like Italy, the United Kingdom, Poland, Belgium, Greece, and Netherland.
In many nations, Bitcoin isn’t deemed as a legal payment means under the contemporary guidelines of the jurisdiction. Therefore, it might not be possible for every country to use Bitcoin for gambling.
It’s wise to check with each country if they authorize the Bitcoin payment system. Talking about countries, Japan is one of the major economies surpassing Nevada by $4 Billion in the Gambling industry. It’s also calculated to be a whopping $15.8 billion in Japan alone.
There are many online service vendors and platforms for gambling that support British cryptocurrency.
The ones wishing to adopt the cryptocurrency-based services have to abide by the gambling ordinances that are functional in England.
The UK gambling commission also issued a warning against the untrustworthy websites providing gambling services to civilians. They have also warned and advised their users to be cautious of the risks of utilizing Bitcoin.
In Japan, regulators have a strict outlook towards cryptocurrencies and its implementation in the gambling industry. Joseph D. Hugh, the financial officer of a cross-border gambling platform supporting cryptocurrencies spoke that it’s difficult to prohibit the players’ control in many cases.
In July 2018, Japan passed a regulatory law that enabled offline casinos in the Country. He even emphasized Japan’s plan to open casino licenses for some crucial casino vendors following the Olympics next year. He said that he thinks that the internet casinos are going to follow after the physical casinos started functioning in a similar regulated manner.
In 2019, the blockchain network Tron, who built infrastructure for a decentralized internet obstructed the availability of gambling apps in the app stores in Japan in the light of the tension built by the Japanese regulators.
Some countries where crypto gambling is currently regulated include Italy, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Poland, Greece, and Belgium. The regulation lengths of crypto gambling in many of these nations come from how much endorsement does cryptocurrencies receive in a certain country.
Areas, where virtual currencies are illegal, are already far from implementable in crypto gambling. Hence, now it is all about perception and crypto performance in the coming years that might bring a change in the regulatory attitude towards online gambling.
