How the gaming sector makes crypto regulations tougher
The online gambling industry is becoming more and more advanced with the development of new technologies. The number of online casinos increases rapidly and therefore, taking precautions when it comes to the safety of gamblers and in general, playing responsibly becomes harder. New technologies are usually accompanied by numerous threats like losing funds, revealing personal information which sometimes results in identity theft. Cases like these are pretty common on the internet nowadays as there are many scammers and fraudsters around the digital online market and this is why people are paying more attention to hiding their personal details.
Years ago nobody could have imagined that the players would have the opportunities to use digital money instead of cash and make transactions without any worries about their personal information. But now it’s hard to find a single person who takes part in the online gambling industry and hasn’t heard anything about cryptocurrencies. It’s a kind of digital money that has so many advantages to players compared to the actual currencies.
Therefore transactions made in cryptos are made every day and people engaged in the online gambling sector start to switch completely from their national currencies to BItcoin and other cryptos. In fact, it is predicted that the global blockchain market will increase and reach about $23 billion by 2023. Also, it’s important to note that according to the official statistics crypto users have exceeded by 40 million in recent years.
How cryptos are used in gaming?
Today cryptos are considered one of the most popular methods of making transactions while playing online games. In case you are not familiar, cryptocurrency is a digital currency that is used as an alternative to ordinary currencies and the main difference is that with cryptos encryption technology is used to generate new units of currency and verify the transfer of online funds. There are a lot of online casinos that give players opportunities to pay with Bitcoin for gambling as it’s pretty convenient for the customers and in fact, is one of the major things that usually attract the attention of online gamblers worldwide.
The reason is simple. Bitcoin and other cryptos are mostly used as an alternative to cash which could land the players in trouble if their country prohibits gambling in general. Sometimes the local online gambling laws don’t give the players a chance to enjoy certain types of gambling services. They find solutions by using offshore gambling sites where cryptos are permitted in order to hind their actions from the government. Cryptocurrency uses an online ledger called a blockchain to track payments. This is a convenient way to transfer money because each time a payment is made, a transaction is added to the ledger in chronological order. The blockchain is protected with high standards, ensuring that no one can manipulate your private data, preventing possible harm from identity thieves and other scammers.
How cryptos affect online gambling regulations?
Cryptocurrencies are often regarded as the future of payment and more and more experts start to think that these digital currencies actually have the power of improving the gambling landscape as the impact they have on the current gambling industry of the world is so huge. The growing presence of Bitcoin is felt in most of the areas of business today and especially in the online gambling market. And even more, cryptos also have a great influence over the legal landscape of most of the countries where it is used, and there have been certain changes in many jurisdictions around the world as a consequence of spreading cryptos in the gambling sector.
Usually, regulators try hard to make the legislation harsher because cryptocurrencies are widely considered a threat to the legal gaming market because in many countries using digital currencies is not even permitted but people often make transactions using them anyway. The main reason why gamblers all over the world adore using cryptos is that it ensures that the player stays anonymous and therefore, is the most secure method because while using cryptos your banking and credit card information isn’t available for anybody which means that identity thieves can’t steal your information.
However, cryptos still are not legal in many countries and their permission is considered a grey area of online gaming. But the problem is that they are neither allowed nor officially banned and most of the regulators just don’t even state whether Bitcoin and other cryptos are banned or accepted. Still, some countries actually changed their legislation for allowing their players to make n transactions using cryptos. Among these countries are some major economic forces like Germany, Canada, and Australia were using cryptocurrencies is legal and as a result, their economy indeed faces a great boost.
Following changes in the crypto landscape
Cryptocurrencies already forced legislation in numerous countries worldwide and the impact can be seen in every field today. Further changes are expected as the European Union decided to introduce new regulations within the next four years. Specifically, according to Reuters, the EU plans to make cross-border payments quicker and cheaper and for this the technology that will be used is blockchain. Therefore, by 2024 the European gambling market will face some major changes as a result of the initiative from the EU to introduce a crypto-assets regime.
The Commission is going to start a new strategy and encourage using digital currencies while currently about 80% of payments are done in cash. One of the main reasons for this new idea can be the new wave of coronavirus pandemic and the vital role of lockdowns in cashless payments. Now it’s clear that shifting to instant payments is really important as it’s the most convenient way to make transactions from home. Although officials now that the initiative won’t come without associated risks, they still plan to encourage using stablecoins – a type of cryptocurrency that is often backed by traditional assets.
For now, central banks are in the process of deciding whether applying this kind of change to their countries will make important progress. Not only the EU but Brussels also started to implement this strategy as they want to make it easier to share data within its financial sector. Therefore, by the end of the current year, it is expected that the instant payment systems will be fully implemented and they should become the new norm for not only the gambling industry of Europe but also for many different business areas that have strong potential for digital finance.
Bottom line
Finally, what can be said is that cryptos have a major influence on the regulations regarding the gambling market all over the world. As the use of cryptos rapidly grows in the online gambling industry, the regulations usually try to make the laws harsher in order to avoid any illegal activities that are quite common in the iGaming landscape. But many countries start to realize that blockchain can have important advantages for their business industries which is why they are planning to take part in the spread of instant payments. Probably, cryptocurrencies have the power to even replace MasterCard, Visa, and other popular payment methods as they are alternatives with many advantages.